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CANNING, N.S. —

The owner of the Canning grocery store is looking to rebuild after a major fire that damaged multiple downtown buildings.

Sam Elias, owner of the Valufoods store on Main Street, says he is still working with the insurance adjusters to correct the payment from the Oct. 6 fire that leveled two adjoining structures and damaged his stockroom, as well as several pieces of commercial-grade equipment.

Although his grocery store was mostly spared during the blaze, an adjacent storage area next door – the only buffer between the business and the fire – was extensively damaged.

Firefighters from several departments throughout Kings County rallied together in the early-morning hours Sunday to battle a fast-moving fire that spread to multiple buildings in downtown Canning. ADRIAN JOHNSTONE PHOTOS

The building pinpointed as the origin site of the fire was destroyed. An unoccupied apartment building and commercial storage area used by the grocery store were heavily damaged. The meat store sustained smoke and water damage, while the grocery store also experienced smoke damage.

The store reopened two days later, but Elias says he is still looking to recover the losses of stock, his pizza oven, a walk-in freezer, a pop machine, and an ice machine.

“We are definitely planning to rebuild if we can,” he said. “We’ll know more in a few weeks and then we’ll be submitting the designs to the county for approval.”

Mandy Burgess, a development officer with the County of Kings, says the property’s location near the Cornwallis River positions it in a sensitive area, close to a flood zone. There are some restrictions in place, but nothing to prevent rebuilding on the site.

There may be some additional building requirements to sign-off on, but it shouldn’t be prohibitive to the project.

“It has been deemed to be an environmentally-sensitive area,” she said. “An engineer will need to sign off on a design with flood-resistant components.”