Thursday, May 1, 2008

Oak St. Fire

On Saturday April 26th, 2008 at around 11:30 pm there was a fire at 3347 Oak St. Victoria, B.C., the home of Luv-A-Rug. Luv-A-Rug was one of the luckier businesses in the complex, we only sustained structural, smoke and water damage.
I don't deal well with tragedy. I keep everything inside and get the job done, then one day I loose it over something small and stupid. There is no hiding from this though. I have to perform my duties when I really want to just run away and pretend it didn't happen. I am sure that my boss feels the same way. As much as I want to rant and rave about how humans react to tragedy it wouldn't do me any good. I would just be taking my frustration out on you and that is not professional.
I started at Luv-A-Rug almost exactly one year ago and now it is gone and I am sad. I am crying as I write this and that is the reason why I didn't want to write this blog-ever!. I hate crying, I hate feeling most emotions. I was taught that emotions do you no good, I wish I was a robot.
Sorry I am very random and don't want to write this blog, but I feel that I owe it to my boss to at least pretend that I can handle this. This should not be a problem, it is just a huge bump in the road and it is overcomeable (a new word for the day).
Luv-A-Rug was at 3347 Oak St for 22 years. We only got minor damage, but the other businesses were completely totaled. I feel very selfish for not mentioning them sooner. As you will see in the pictures a lot of people have a lot of rebuilding to do and I wish them the best.
This is the first fire to really affect my life and I am sure it is as well for other's who worked in the building.
























From the back of the building you would never know anything had happened to the building. The Chek news story shows the extent of the damage. With Victoria being a small city there is a lot of community support and everyone was understanding that they couldn't get their rugs back for a few weeks. My tears have seemed to have subsided for now and I don't know what else to say. I guess I could say out of the ashes the phoenix will rise. So I now say good-bye to the place where I have worked for only a year, but has been a fixture in Victoria for two decades.
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=8669df4a-900f-4e41-b0c6-5690f2d4dd63&k=63201&sponsor=

Luv-A-Rug is now located at 445 Beta St (off Alpha St) Victoria BC 250-590-6210/ 800-886-2802