A fire destroyed a workshop on Island Way Road Tuesday night. No injuries were reported, and the cause has not been determined. Callum Mathieson photo
A Tuesday evening fire destroyed a workshop with a lot of history in Oliver.
“I don’t know how I’m going to replace all the things that took 40 years to collect,” said Terry Schafer after a fire gutted his workshop on Island Way Road at 8:30 pm.
Schafer, a former Town councillor, said he just closed up his shop for the evening and was sitting in his chair when he saw smoke.
He ran to the chicken coop (attached to the shop) and opened the door to let the chickens escape. He also jumped on his bike and peddled to his front gate to ensure that firefighters could access the property.
“The fire was incredibly fast,” Schafer said, noting it only took four minutes before the workshop was fully engulfed in flames.
Schafer gave kudos to the Oliver Fire Department for containing the blaze to one building. Firefighters managed to stop the fire from spreading to a nearby barn that was 20 feet away. Schafer said the barn was actually smouldering from the heat.
Media relations officer Rob Graham said the cause is not known and could be difficult to determine. He noted that most of the building had collapsed.
Schafer said he lost a lot of tools in the fire, adding that the workshop was home to all of his guitar-making equipment, including jigs and specialty wood.
Four guitars were destroyed, in addition to some family artwork. Schafer was also proud of a solar furnace he built on the roof, but that too is gone.
Schafer said he has no idea how the fire started.
His wife spent part of Wednesday talking to insurance adjustors.
When asked if he planned to rebuild his workshop, Schafer said, “A steel building sounds really appealing right now.”
