Walker’s Towing has been devastated after a fire ripped through a Quonset hut containing some irreplaceable items and destroyed decades’ worth of company history.
The Moose Jaw Fire Department responded to the fire around 4:20 a.m. on June 25 and arrived to find one of the huts engulfed. According to Fire Chief Rod Montgomery, crews were able to quickly extinguish the blaze, but the fire had already done extensive damage to the structure and items inside.
The fire department and Moose Jaw Police Service say the fire is suspicious.
John Walker, owner of the company, was saddened and discouraged by the fire and couldn’t understand why this had happened.
“I’ve helped people for 50 years and this is what they do to me,” he said.
John’s father, Gerry, started the company on Aug. 1, 1973, and erected the now-destroyed Quonset hut around 1976. John then joined the company in 1978 while in high school.
Gerry died in 2008.
Many “irreplaceable” memorabilia and items were destroyed in the fire, said Walker. This included old pictures of his father and the company’s activities, a 1968 Western Star truck, the “big heavy” 2001 Western Star truck, a flat deck truck, tools, hoists, taxis and other equipment used for oil changes.
Losing some of the equipment and vehicles will “be an inconvenience for a while,” he continued. The next steps will be to rebuild and attempt to replace those items lost.
“It’s a sad day for Walker’s Towing, and when people do that, we lose a lot of history,” added Walker. “Moose Jaw doesn’t need to lose any more (of its history).”
The fire department responded to the fire with nine firefighters and three trucks and put water on the structure immediately, said Montgomery. The fact the structure was steel both helped and hindered the process because it held a large amount of heat but also helped cool the structure quickly after the fire was out. Firefighters also had to beware of any propane or fuel in the structure since that posed a danger.
Montgomery figures that about two to three Quonset huts had been lost to fires over the last four years.
“Our crews did a great job,” he said, adding anyone with information about the fire should call police at 306-694-7600.
