'There's nothing left': Fire destroys Letellier Hotel, Oscar's Bar

The owner of a southern Manitoba hotel and watering hole spent the nightparked in aTim Hortonslot, confused and trying to process what happenedafter a fire destroyed his business and his home.

"Devastated ... disbelief," Gilles Barnabe said Monday, less than 24 hours after Oscar's Bar and the Letellier Hotel burned down.

• Crews battle fire at Oscar's Bar in Letellier, Man.

Barnabehas owned and operated theLetellier, Man., businessfor 17 yearsin a building that celebrated its100thanniversary last year.

"Everybody seems fairly depressed about it,"Barnabesaid.

LetellierresidentJohanneKehlercalled 911 Sunday when she noticed smoke and flames coming from the local haunton1st Street E., about 85 kilometres south of Winnipeg.

"Very sad for a small town to lose such a major place,"Kehlersaid."There's nothing left.

"It just took the whole building.... This morning it's just a pile of rubble."

Letellierfire ChiefJean-GuyChartiersaid crews got acall at about 7 p.m. about the flames at the bar and hotel, located right across the street from the fire hall.

"By the time we got here, it was already fully involved," he said. "We determined it wasn't safe to go inside so we just attacked the fire from the outside."

Fire crews from Emerson,Altona, St. Jean Baptiste, Dominion City andPembina, N.D.,helped theLetelliersquad douse the big blaze.

"It's a very sad day,"Chartiersaid.

"I've been talking to a lot of local people who have been stopping by the fire hall, bringingfood and coffee.They celebrated 100 years this August and had a big party and everything, and now it's just going to be an empty lot. It's sad to see in little towns."

Kehlersaid after making the emergency call, shewatched as the second floor caved in and the north side of the building"blew out."

Barnabe arrived just a few minutes after the fire crews,Kehlersaid.

"He just stood on the road, just shaking his head,"Kehlersaid."It's his livelihood. He's got nothing left. The only thing he has is the clothes on his back."

After watching firefighters spray the structure down, Barnabedrove north to Morris, Man., where he parked and slept in a Tim Hortons parking lot for a few hours, he said.

On top of running the hotel and bar, employingsix workers, Barnabe alsolived in the building.

"Haven't gotten that far yet," Barnabe said when he was asked where he'll live or whathis workers will do to make ends meet.

It's too soon to say whether he'll rebuild, Barnabe said that will depend on how much money he gets through insurance.

Emergency officials haven't yet released a damage estimate or information about the cause of the fire.

Letellier isabout 15 kilometres north of the Canada-U.S. border in therural municipality of Montcalm, which has a population of around 1,260 residents.

100-year-old building reduced to ash

8 years ago

Duration 1:37

Six fire departments were called in to help fight the flames, but they could not save the century old hotel and bar in Letellier, Manitoba. Today, CBC's Meaghan Fiddler got a sense of how much the hotel and bar meant to the community.