Demolition crews moved in Monday to take out the remnants of the St. Jacobs Farmers Market’s main building, two weeks after the structure was destroyed by fire.
“We’re sorting through the material, recycling the metal and picking through the good pieces for reuse as furniture,” says Nat Rocia of Kieswetter Demolition.
The demolition work is expected to be done by mid-week, and owner Marcus Shantz says he’s ready to see it finished.
“I’m not really sentimental about the building,” he tells CTV News.
“We’ve been saying it’s not the building, it’s the people. This is a new start. We’re glad to see the demolition underway because it means we can get on with making plans for the next steps.”
No cause has been officially determined for the fire, although investigators believe it may have started in the building’s southeast corner.
Since the fire, markets have continued to run on Thursday and Saturday mornings.
Shantz says most displaced vendors have been able to set up temporary quarters at the market, either indoors or outdoors, and plans are already being drawn up for a temporary replacement building – possibly on the exact spot where the previous building stood.
“Our next step is to put up a temporary structure … to enable us to get through the winter and into another season,” he says.
Although many items were destroyed in the fire, Rocia says workers have been able to find a few items, mostly sentimental pieces, and return them to vendors.
