ARTHUR – Elora resident Wendy Mudd was at the Arthur Family Health Centre on Thursday when she noticed flames coming from a window above the IScreamm Cone Company building at the intersection of Charles Street East and George Street (Highway 6), in downtown Arthur.
“I could see the flames coming through,” Mudd told the Advertiser. “These flames that I saw were massive.”
In a video recorded at the scene around 11:55am on Oct. 26, grey smoke is seen spewing from what appears to be an apartment window on the east side of the building.
Flames and smoke are seen in a downtown Arthur building on Oct. 26. Submitted photo
Passersby and next-door neighbours gathered with their pets on a sidewalk as a woman stood by herself trembling, according to Mudd, who comforted and spoke with her for half-an-hour before she felt okay to leave.
Speaking to a reporter by phone on Monday, the trembling woman, whose name is Rachelle Dionne, recalled watching TV in her apartment above the IScreamm Cone Company last week, when she heard popping sounds so loud she thought there was maintenance work being done.
She rose to investigate the noise only to find the corner of her kitchen engulfed by growing flames which devoured a nearby wicker stand.
“I did try putting it out, up until the point that I started throwing up,” Dionne said.
She fled her apartment, and pounded her fist on the adjacent neighbour’s door, who wasn’t home at the time, until the smoke overwhelmed her.
Her running shoes in her arms and a sweater over her pyjamas — the only belongings she was able to grab — Dionne stood in shock outside, her bare feet wet from the rain, as she watched her and her partner’s home of the past seven years being destroyed with everything inside it.
“It just happened so fast,” she said.
Wellington North Fire Service officials and volunteer firefighters soon arrived and began taking stock of the scene and running hose lines.
“Everybody knew their job and what to do,” Mudd said of the response.
Wellington North firefighters responded to an apartment fire above the IScreamm Cone Company building on George Street (Highway 6) in downtown Arthur on Oct. 26. Susie Burns photo
Wellington North deputy fire chief Callise Loos told the Advertiser that the fire was contained to a single apartment unit on the building’s upper floor with the help of the Minto Fire Department.
After arriving at 11:45am, firefighters entered the building and located the fire in the kitchen area of Dionne’s apartment.
Flames were knocked down by 12:07pm, according to Loos, but the fire had also spread down a wall below the apartment, requiring the wall to be torn apart.
Smoke seeped into two commercial units below, including the IScreamm Cone Company and the Wellington County Learning Centre.
The ceiling above the ice cream shop became saturated by water, with portions collapsing into the store.
A request for comment sent to the Wellington County Leaning Centre went without a response as of Oct. 30, but a post made to the centre’s Facebook page stated their thoughts are with “fellow building neighbours, in light of Thursday’s tragedy.”
“We have all lost something dear to us,” the statement continued, adding the centre is looking for a new place to call home, and that in the meantime staff will be available by phone and online.
Despite tenants from the upper-level apartments having been displaced, and an estimated $500,000 in damage, no people were hurt in the blaze.
Dionne lost her pet of 10 years, a black and white cat named Minnie.
The cause of the fire has yet to be determined, but Loos said it’s “accidental in nature.”
Reached by phone on Oct. 27, IScreamm Cone Company owner Sherry Chappelle said her business was so much more than an ice cream shop and candy store.
The store would often function like a community hub, Chappelle said.
Kindergarten classes would come by for hot chocolate and locals would stop, pull up a chair and talk about life.
“It’s really heavy in my heart,” she said. “I’m devastated.”
Chappelle was able to enter the store last week and salvage her “appreciation wall” of photos and priceless mementos collected over her six years there.
The once sweet-smelling air has been overcome by the acrid scent of smoke, and almost everything within the store is a total loss.
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up by Chappelle’s daughter Taylor, and as of Oct. 30, it had raised close to $6,200 of a $10,000 goal, increased from an intial $5,000 goal.
Local downtown businesses have also offered floor space to set up a pop-up shop, and Chappelle intends to keep the business going at upcoming Christmas markets in Aboyne and Arthur.
“The community has been amazing,” Chappelle said. “Arthur just comes together.”
Damage inside the IScreamm Cone Company store in downtown Arthur. Submitted photo
Dionne had a similar response to the outpouring of support: “People are amazing; it’s incredible how people want to help.”
She and her partner Randy Schnurr are now living in a camping trailer belonging to Randy’s employer.
“We’re doing okay, we’ve got a roof over our head,” Dionne said.
And though the couple is safe, there’s a hint of reservation in her voice.
They’ve lost everything they owned, and Dionne is finding herself weighed down by a feeling of guilt, and nights that come and go without sleep.
“I know I didn’t start it,” Dionne said, guessing the fire began at a power outlet in the kitchen.
“But I’ve displaced two people and that just breaks my heart,” she added, her voice breaking.
“People just keep telling me … that I shouldn’t feel that way, but it is how I feel,” she explained.
“I have a good relationship with God, so I try to give a lot to him, but it’s still tough.”
The couple looks forward to finding somewhere more permanent to live, where they can begin to recover.
Until then, Dionne is finding hope in the response of “perfect strangers.”
Perfect strangers like Wendy Mudd, who stayed with Dionne and provided comfort and a much-needed hug in the midst of tragedy.
“She didn’t even want to leave me,” Dionne said of Mudd.
“She just stood with me and I don’t even know if we talked to be honest … but she was amazing.”
GoFundMe campaigns have been set up for Dionne and another woman who lived in apartments on the second level of the building.
