Businesses reflect on the second anniversary of the 247 Main Street fire

It has been two years since a fire destroyed the strip mall at the corner of Friesen Avenue and Main Street and took down six businesses in the process. 

The anniversary was this past Wednesday, July 10th. Troy Pidsadny owns Steinbach’s Flooring Canada, one of the businesses that went up in flames on that fateful day.  

He says this anniversary wasn’t as emotional as last year and certainly not as traumatic as the day of the fire. In fact, he says many of his staff didn’t even realize it was the anniversary.  

“As the owner of the business, you kind of battle through these days and reflect maybe a little bit more than others do, but the fact that it was not recognized a lot by the staff, felt actually kind of nice, to know you’re in a good spot.” 

Looking back at the day itself, Pidsadny says it was incredibly hard and emotional, but the community support was very encouraging.  

“It was a shock to see it all happening but within hours we had people reaching out offering us a space to work and computers to use, not even knowing what the next steps are so, it was a pretty humbling experience. Just that outreach, it’s a blessing. We live in a great community, and we have lots of friends and it was really neat to have them help out in a situation like that.” 

Darryl Janzen from Janzen’s Paint and Decorating says his experience was very similar. 

“We were obviously watching it happen and people were coming up to us and just reaching out and then in the days after that, just the outreach from the community was amazing. Anyone who could help out with temporary locations, just dropping off gift baskets and stuff. Reaching out to my staff too, it wasn’t just me and my wife, it was all of us.” 

Janzen’s Paint and Decorating is now located along Park Road next to Smitty’s. Janzen says they don’t have as much floor space as they used to, but they are making it work and they have plans for expansion in the future.  

“The customer base has also been very understanding and very supportive. When Park Road opened up again here, that’s really helped with the traffic flow and getting a lot of people coming up Industrial Road, so we’re seeing a lot of new customers and our customers have sought us out and found us and we definitely feel their support.” 

He adds, this anniversary is different than the last one, noting “You change to being more thankful rather than just dwelling on what you lost. So, looking forward to the future.” 

Meanwhile, Pidsadny says Steinbach’s Flooring Canada spent some time in the old Steinbach Legion building before moving to their new, permanent location near the intersection of Highway 12 North and Acres Drive.  

“It’s a long journey because you’re kind of reinventing yourself and regrowing your business and then in the meantime you’re building a new spot and trying to figure out how that’s going to work long term, so it’s been a challenge two years, a successful two years, but I would not want to wish this journey on anyone. It’s a tough one.” 

That said, Pidsadny adds things have turned out.

“We’re in a great spot, we love our new location, business is really good, community of supporting us, really in the end you can’t complain. It’s been a very positive move for us.” 

And it’s not just those two. Janzen notes he is excited to see that all of the businesses from the old strip mall on Main Street have landed on their feet.