Chris Pasin has been a pharmacist for 30 years. The past seven of which have been at Oliver’s Remedy’sRX where he’s the manager.
About a month ago, on Saturday, May 15, Pasin got a call after 4 a.m. from the alarm company which secures the pharmacy.
They told him that there was an incident at the pharmacy, and he needs to get there as soon as possible.
Pasin got in his car soon after to drive over there, and before he even got there, the fire department phoned him to say there was a fire at the pharmacy and they needed him to report there immediately.
“I’m almost there,” said Pasin.
When he got to the parking lot of the pharmacy, he saw three police cars, a fire truck and an ambulance all parked outside.
Pasin said he couldn’t even imagine what had happened. “I didn’t even want to know what I’m going to see. I was worried I would walk up and see two feet of water in a decimated store.”
When he did walk into the store, Pasin said he was actually glad to see the relatively small area impacted.
“I was very relieved to see that very little water was used, and how localized the fire was. And of course, my lack of fire knowledge just like probably 99 per cent of the general public thought, ‘this is no big deal, the fire was only in the corner,’” he said.
But then he realized, “oh, right, then there’s the smoke.”
Although it was a little fire, the smoke damage seeps into every corner, said Pasin. “Probably even the shortest and sweetest scenario, it impacts absolutely everything in the store.”
Early that morning, the RCMP recieved a call regarding an arson report from Remedy’sRX. A suspect had broken in, lit items on fire and departed, according to Sgt. Don Wrigglesworth.
Everything in the front store, 100 per cent, including the shelves and everything in them has to be disposed of and thrown away.
The desks at the store had to be replaced, the computers had to be replaced, the switch panel, the air ventilation system, all the flooring, the light fixtures, electrical sockets, every exposed piece of insulation, all the wiring too had to be replaced.
Every wall in the store will have five new coats of paint; two coats of smoke sealing paint and three coats of regular paint.
The damage was a sweeping blanket that touched everything in sight.
Despite this, the staff have managed to operate and serve residents in nearly the same way as always since the incident.
“On Saturday, we did emergency type stuff; there’s always people who expect to be able to come in on the Saturday so we didn’t turn them away. But we kind of treated it with some of the COVID protocol techniques. We got them to wait in the parking lot and bring them things to the front door for them, etc. So we didn’t have any actual public in the store until we knew what was going on,” said Pasin.
Luckily, a decent portion of the prescriptions at the pharmacy were salvaged, unlike the retail area.
“The pharmacy itself didn’t have too much of a hiccup other than those first two or three days where we had to really limit traffic flow,” he added.
“The pharmacy itself didn’t have too much of a hiccup other than those first two or three days where we had to really limit traffic flow,” he added.
Now, 100 per cent of the pharmacy services are still available. This includes filling prescriptions, giving injections, answering questions, and any other services. Though the retail space has been greatly reduced, Pasin also said that they can order almost anything someone needs within a day.
The current state of the store has a segregated counter area with a hallway that leads back to our pharmacy area. “It’s all safe, clean, going good and normal and allows the crews to work around the other major damage while we’re still open,” said Pasin.
“We are open, it’s business as normal with respect to the pharmacy department for sure. And the front store retail, we’re functioning with what we’ve got and anything else. Be free to ask us for something you don’t see, because we can source it out for you,” said Pasin.
Although the situation is a nightmare for any business, Pasin said the customers and community have been amazing throughout the past month.
“Our prescription customers have been fantastic. They feel for us, they feel our pain; I don’t know how many people in the past month have said ‘don’t worry, Chris, we know what you’re going through. we don’t wish this on anyone, we will always support you.’ We’ve heard that a lot.”
Pasin said that a local resident came in recently to buy specific eye drops which would normally be at the retail part but weren’t. The customer could’ve left and went to the two other pharmacies in town but instead he wanted to support the store and didn’t mind waiting a day for Pasin to order them in.
The team at the pharmacy is hoping all the restoration and construction should be complete (best case scenario) in three months. For now, they are working with a refreshing and optimistic attitude and doing the best with their current space and resources.
“We have to do all sorts of reorganization with all our prescriptions and medications and stuff, because we only have our shelving array, so we’re making use of temporary tables and countertops, and it’s a bit makeshift, but we’re figuring it out to make it work,” said Pasin, laughing.
“And like I mentioned earlier, we’ve got an awesome staff, and everyone’s just looking at the next big challenge. Look at it this way, COVID was a walk in the park compared to this.”
