BELWOOD – An owner’s plans to renovate a recently purchased building in Belwood have gone up in smoke after it was destroyed in a fire.
Ravinder Preet bought the building that served as Belwood’s post office with a vacant apartment in it and the Belwood Super Snax restaurant next door earlier this year in May.
A fire ended up ripping through the building overnight on Nov. 15, destroying the property. Preet confirmed a structural engineer has determined the building is not safe and it will be demolished in the near future.
“We were just having plans for that building, renovating and everything right? But now this thing has happened,” Preet said. “It’s heartbreaking when you put so much of your savings in one property.”
She acknowledged the impact this has had in the community as many people picked up their mail at the post office and they have had to go elsewhere for this and other postal services.
The fire also directly led to the restaurant, which Preet leases out, to be shut down by public health on Nov. 17 and it remains closed.
“It didn’t damage the restaurant but the water well was in that building that got damaged so there’s no water supply to this restaurant at this time,” Preet said.
It’s unclear when the restaurant will be able to reopen but Preet said it will open as soon as the water issue is resolved.
“We just want to make a request to everyone, once the restaurant is reopened please support the person who will be operating the restaurant,” Preet said.
“Once a restaurant shuts down, even for a short time, it loses business and once it is back it’s hard to get the customers back.”
Investigators have not yet disclosed to Preet or the public the cause of the fire and she could only speculate that it would be an electrical issue because it is an old building.
There’s also uncertainty over what to do with the land that will remain once the building is torn down.
“We don’t know at this time because we don’t have a clear picture of what's going to happen once demolition is done, let’s see what insurance comes up and then we’ll plan it out,” Preet said.
