There is not enough insurance in the world to cover the disappointment Carri Hunter is feeling after seeing her store go up in flames early Monday morning.
"I'm beside myself," Hunter said Tuesday as she looked at the charred wreckage where Mothers 'N' More Maternity had stood only a day-and-a-half before.
Hunter had been in business for just three weeks and was looking forward to launching a formal advertising campaign for her store, which specializes in maternity and nursing clothing and accessories, when a fire broke out at about 11:30 p.m. Sunday.
"All my savings and all my debt and all my resources, I put everything in there, and now I'm sitting here waiting on insurance," Hunter said.
The venture was a sign that she and husband Seth and their children were finally putting down roots.
As a military family, they had done plenty of moving around, seeing their children enrolled in three different schools and, at one point, celebrating Christmas in a different community for 10 straight years.
But in 2011, Seth landed a more stable position as a lieutenant with the Rocky Mountain Rangers militia based out of the old Meadow elementary school.
By 2 a.m. Monday, however, she was seeing pictures of her store in flames on Facebook.
"It was a little surreal...and then I came down yesterday morning and saw this," Hunter said.
She has coverage for the $80,000 worth of stock and other items destroyed in the blaze that also took out the Something Old, Something New antique consignment store in the 300-block of George Street.
Hunter is bracing herself for further disappointment for her insurer making good on its coverage so she is not sure when she will be back in business.
If she had her way, Hunter would reopen downtown and preferably back in the very same spot. With the Farmers' Market a half-block away, she said it was a great location in terms of traffic.
By Tuesday, Environmental Dynamics Inc. (EDI) and Northern Interior Native Health Society had reopened, as was Simmy's across the street, while The Copper Pig BBQ House remained closed but standing. Copper Pig kitchen manager Jeff Vandooyeweert only needed to look at the wreckage next door to know just how bad it could have been.
With owner Tyler Burbee out of town, the alarm company alerted Vandooyeweert when the fire broke out. At first he thought it was something minor, like the heat sensors going off because some equipment was left on.
"But I came down the hill by the prison, all I could see was a bright orange moon and I could see the flames coming out and my heart just dropped," Vandooyeweert said.
To his relief, he found it was the antique store on fire. But then he saw the flames spread across and up onto The Copper Pig's roof.
"And then it was, 'OK, come on guys, put this out quick before it goes in because if it goes in, it's done,'" Vandooyeweert said. "But no, the firefighters did a great job. They put it out, they controlled it very well."
Accompanied by a firefighter, Vandooyeweert was allowed to enter the building at 6 a.m., to try to retrieve a staff contact list from the downstairs office.
"I couldn't find it because everything was underwater, there was a foot of water downstairs," Vandooyeweert said. "The filing cabinets were just flooded."
Four hours later, he was able to get back in for a second time and walked through the upstairs to get a first glance at the damage. One of his next moves was to call in a refrigerator truck in to remove the meat - pork, brisket, ribs, chicken and prawns - from the cooler before it spoiled.
"It wasn't too bad because we get our meat orders on Monday and it was Sunday," Vandooyeweert said. "Sunday was the perfect day for this to happen, there's nobody in the restaurant so there's no chance of anybody getting hurt and there was not a lot of food...our weekend rush was gone."
Vandooyeweert is "really happy" the building is still standing and is hopeful The Copper Pig will reopen sooner rather than later. About 20 people work at the restaurant.
"We don't know how bad the water damage is right now, all we know is that the side of the building from the heat of the first building wrecked some of the brickwork, so maybe it's OK, maybe it's not," Vandooyeweert said.
"The downstair floor is all concrete, so that's a plus, there's not much floor down there to be destroyed. And there's the drywall and replacing drywall is pretty easy."
Like Vandooyeweert, the Hunters had accolades for the firefighters.
"The firefighters were phenomenal," Seth said. "They worked hard, they deserve a lot of respect."
