The fire at the Coulson building on Durham Street downtown is the latest major commercial fire to hit a Greater Sudbury building over the past century
On June 20, the Coulson announced the beginning of the cleanup effort after their recent fire. The eventual return to normalcy, a rising from the ashes like the proverbial phoenix is the preferred end result of a fire.
On Jan. 10, 1967, 19 businesses and seven apartments were heavily damaged in what reader Reg Winn remembers as a “huge fire” that caused $600,000 in damage while destroying an entire block on the north side of Elm Street. In the aftermath of the fire, many long-time shoppers such as Nicole Foy “stopped going there for a very long time” because, as John Kaipainen wrote, “the place stank of smoke for a long time afterwards.” Sandra Valade not only remembers “how weird it smelled in Kresges” but she also spoke of the "fire sale,” which was a way for businesses touched by fire to both stay in business but also offload affected merchandise.
On April 28, 1969, Sudbury's most expensive fire up to that date occurred when the New Sudbury Shopping Centre, located at the corner of Lasalle Boulevard and Barrydowne Road, was completely destroyed with a loss of $1,775,215. The blaze obliterated several stores, including Yolles Men's Wear, Woolco Warehouse, A.L. Green, and Enchin Bros. Clothing.
A few readers commented that they worked in the complex at the time, and obviously remember the fire, but only one person’s employment was directly attributable to the disaster. Helene Lascelles Landry wrote that she “started working at Zellers to help with the smoke damage”. It was her first part time job at 15 years old.
As of May 26 of that year, The Sudbury Star reported that on top of the cause remaining unknown, “plans for re-building remain uncertain.” But, by Nov. 12, 1969, it was announced stores were being rebuilt and the indoor centre that we all remember in 1970s and 1980s was on the horizon Stephen MacLean remembers that before they filled in the empty foundation it “was great to ride our bikes around in.” His family lived across the street and, one time, “the firefighters came in, in the middle of the night, and removed us children” who were playing in the foundation. After the foundation was filled in, a new business took over the location in the late seventies, the Belton Fruit Market & Garden Centre, which reader Stephen Maclean deemed “amazing.
Reader Vaughn Chabot, who was a machinist apprentice at that time, “spent many hours at work cleaning special jigs and fixtures that were recovered from the fire.” Another reader, Merle Smith, who worked at The Sudbury Star “brought a bunch of lawn chairs up on the roof and stayed” to watch as the difficult blaze “caught fire again but this time inside of all the double roofs and nothing at that point they could do to save it.”
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