A business on the North Shore of Conception Bay, shut down for 16 weeks because of the wildfire in August, has finally reopened to the public.
The Red Ochre Cafe in Ochre Pit Cove was spared from the flames, but the business was unable to open because of smoke and other damage.
Tracey Shute says a lot of lessons have been learned in the wake of the disaster – not the least of which was dealing with insurance.
The Red Ochre Cafe in 2023 (via Facebook)
Shute told VOCM Open Line that the insurance company initially wanted them to clean out their fridges and freezers rather than replace them, despite the fact that no electricity had been running to the area for weeks.
She says the appliances finally had to be thrown away, but the entire back and forth set their reopening date back.
“So we can assure …our customers that the equipment has all been replaced. We are shiny brand new where we need to be, we’ve got new flooring, we’ve painted…we’re ready. It’s been a lot of elbow grease; three weeks ago we finally kind of took the cafe back from the insurance and said ‘you know what? We’re going to do this, and we’ll talk to you about the bill afterwards.'”
