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UPDATED: Grand Forks and Winnipeg Hotel fires, one year later

Personal valuables, hard work and good memories were destroyed a year ago in the Grand Forks and Winnipeg Hotel fires on March 12, 2012.
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George Genich lived in the Grand Forks Hotel for 13 years before it was burnt down on March 7

Editor's note: Clarifies information regarding response time of fire departments.

Personal valuables, hard work and good memories were destroyed one year ago when both the Grand Forks Hotel and the Winnipeg Hotel were set ablaze on March 7.

George Genich called the Grand Forks Hotel home. He lived there for 13 years before the fire gutted the hotel.

“All my belongings were burned in that fire, my mother’s wedding ring, my family pictures and all my writing manuscripts,” said the 83-year-old Grand Forks resident.

“I woke up hearing people shouting ‘fire, fire, fire’, so I grabbed my clothes and left,” he said. “I didn’t think anything bad at first because the fire hall was so close.”

The department split up into two units, one taking on the Winnipeg Hotel fire and the other taking on the Grand Forks Hotel fire.

Genich was displaced with only the clothes on his back. He spent the first few months bouncing around town but now rents a trailer near the car wash on the west end of town.

The arsonist, Christopher James Cusack, has been charged with two counts of arson and endangering human life. He appeared yesterday at the Rossland Provincial Court to fix a date for his upcoming trial.

All the hard work that went into getting the hotel back into shape by the new owner, Mandy Nordahn, went to waste, added Genich.

Nordahn bought the hotel from her father-in-law, Bob Smith, in October 2010, because she thought it was a great opportunity.

“All we did was work our butts off trying to get it back in shape and then the guy came and burned it down,” she said. Nordahn told the Gazette that the future of the hotel is still unclear.

“I’m waiting to hear on insurance on what the heck they are going to do. Nothing has happened, they have had so many delays on everything. It took them forever to take the building down, for Pete’s sake,” she said.

Nordahn left on a two-week vacation just after the fire because the insurance agency said it would be a good time to go away and then by the time she got back the demolition would be done and things would get rolling.

“Nothing happened for months and months and months, so we stayed here in Tofino, B.C. and lost our house in Grand Forks ’cause we couldn’t pay for that anymore,” she said. “It’s just been a really tough year.”

The Grand Forks Hotel has since been demolished and an empty lot now stand in its place.

Coming back to Grand Forks and rebuilding could be an option for Nordahn; however, she said part of her decision lies in the hands of the insurance company.

“I’m still waiting to hear back from the insurance agency in terms of what my next steps will be,” she said.

The Winnipeg Hotel, which didn’t suffer such extensive damage as the Grand Forks Hotel, was sold to the Rikhi Development Corporation and Brown Bridge Ventures Ltd., on July 4.

The developers have been working to clear asbestos and hazardous materials from the building before it can be knocked down.

“We have about a week and a half of work left of clearing and then it will take about a week to knock the building down,” said Bill Irvine, president of Brown Bridge Ventures Ltd.

In roughly three weeks they will begin construction of a freestanding liquor store.