A fire that started at the pizza delight in Shediac, N.B. Thursday morning flared up again Friday morning.
Firefighters believed they had extinguished the flames, but the fire ignited again while employees were cleaning up the scene.
Fire crews from Shediac and Dieppe responded to the blaze but bitter-cold temperatures froze their gear and hampered their efforts.
“Most of our trucks have frozen up. We’ve got Dieppe helping us…some of their equipment had already frozen by the time they got here,” said restaurant owner Julien Boudreau, who is also a member of the Shediac Fire Department.
Firefighters had to climb through thick smoke to fight the flames. One firefighter was taken to hospital for minor smoke inhalation.
“I could see the smoke from downtown. I knew something was burning bad,” said area resident Marc Leger.
After Thursday’s fire, Boudreau said he had hoped to reopen in a few weeks. But the building is completely destroyed after the fire reignited Friday.
“By the looks of it now, that certainly won’t happen. We’ll certainly rebuild,” said Boudreau, who fought the fire while watching his business go up in flames.
The blaze has put 30 employees out of work.
“I was off for two weeks and I just started this Monday and I just worked for three days and there goes my work, up in smoke,” said Yvon Melanson.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Jonathan MacInnis
