For some who work on the 300 block of George Street, the clean-up process after Sunday night's fire will be minimal. But others will need to completely start over.
Prince George Fire Rescue responded to the fire in the area shortly after 11:30 p.m. Sunday and found heavy smoke and flames coming from the roof of the building.
George and Dominion Streets between Third and Fourth Avenues were closed Monday while crews put out hot spots and investigators carried out their work.
Dale Simmonds, owner of Simmy's Bistro at the corner of George Street and Third Avenue, closed his doors Monday. His water was shut off and water had made it inside his building from the fire suppression efforts.
City street sweeping crews were out along Third Avenue in the morning, cleaning out the catch basins and getting rid of the water, embers and other fire debris that had clogged the thoroughfare.
Simmonds had left his downtown storefront Sunday around 10:30 p.m. By 11:30 he was back, watching the strip across the street burn.
Central Interior Native Health Society executive director Murry Krause was on site Monday morning, sweeping up the shattered glass from the front door the fire department broke through to access the building.
He said he expected their business to only be closed for the day and that arrangements were being made to deliver clinical services to clients through other means.
On the opposite end of the block, Environmental Dynamics Inc. (EDI) president Bob Redden and his staff were less sure when they'd be able to return to business as usual.
"Everybody has gone home apart from people who need to deal with things for our other offices, making sure we're keeping everything up and running," Redden said. The Prince George office is home base for the business which has locations across western Canada. "We're just in re-evaluation mode right now - once we understand what we're dealing with we can get up and running again fairly quickly."
The fire didn't appear to breach the 301 George St. space, but smoke and water damage were factors there, as was likely the case at The Copper Pig BBQ House restaurant.
Before the blaze was put out, early speculation was that the fire had claimed the popular eatery, prompting owner Tyler Burbee - who was out of town - to put the rumours to rest via social media.
Burbee cautioned against buying into any early reports about damage to his restaurant.
"No one's going to know until a day or two," he told The Citizen. "Is there damage from the firemen making sure the place didn't burn down? Probably, but no one's going to know for a day or two [until inspections take place]... Everything will be all right and let's not get caught up in the rumours."
Focus should be turned on to the businesses that clearly won't be bouncing back immediately, Burbee indicated.
Among the worst affected are the tenants of Dan McLaren, president of Commonwealth Realty Corp. and owner of 301, 331 and 345 George St.
The antique consignment store Something Old, Something New at 361 George St. - which some witnesses have said appeared to be where the blaze started - is owned by Margaret Godbersen, who declined to comment.
McLaren said he received the call about the fire shortly after 2:30 Monday morning.
He described the fire, which also destroyed the Mothers 'N' More Maternity - a three-week old store specializing in maternity and nursing clothing and accessories as well as baby gifts and jewelry - as heartbreaking.
"We were very excited to get them downtown - it was kind of metaphor for downtown," McLaren said. "If you would have said three years ago that you'd have a retail store focusing on pregnant women's clothing on George Street I think people would have laughed at you. But here we have someone that moved to town, made a decision to invest in downtown, extensive renovations, did a really nice job on the inside. We had just received quotes to redo the facade as well to make it look consistent with [next the others]."
The fire exposed the concrete walls dividing The Copper Pig and EDI, protecting them from the worst of the damage between.
"The building were built to 1930s standards, so whatever a 1930s fire wall might look like, that's what we're seeing here now," McLaren said.
Once the investigation is complete and the insurance companies have gone through the mess, McLaren said his preference would be to rebuild the area that until Sunday night was anchored by a sign declaring "Welcome to historic George Street."
"Our hope is that we want to get it cleaned up and we want to develop something that will enhance the downtown in a thoughtful way," he said.
