The good news is the lounge in the Trail Legion will re-open on Friday at 2 p.m.
Walls have been washed and re-painted, carpets and upholstery shampooed, and exit doors replaced after a fire outside the popular gathering spot forced it to close two days into the new year.
The bad news is the hall at the East Trail locale will remain closed indefinitely due to heavy smoke damage. That means the well-used venue is off limits for memorials, meetings, and annual events like Robbie Burns Day, which for years has been heartily celebrated at the Trail Legion in January.
“The hall is ripped apart,” says Sandy Gagnon, the Legion’s office administrator. “Everything in there needs to be cleaned, the carpets need to be replaced and electrical needs to be done. We also need to get in new fire exit doors.”
Repairs are still in question for the wooden ramp at the side of the building as well as the outdoor storage shed which housed inventory such as the Legion’s barbecue.
Related story here: Fire at Trail Legion limited to outside the building
The fire was discovered by a uniformed police officer on routine patrol the evening of Jan. 2.
“An unknown person had been camping beside the building and had lit a campfire,” RCMP Sgt. Mike Wicentowich told the Trail Times Jan. 3. “The campfire was believed to have been the cause of the fire to the exterior of the Royal Canadian Legion.”
As of Tuesday, police had no new details to report on the case.
Eleven members of the Trail Station 374 and eight firefighters from Station 372 in Warfield responded to the call that night at around 9 p.m. The incident was listed as under control by 9:30 p.m.
“Very quickly the fire was out and we spent a lot of time supporting the Legion in getting fans running to get smoke out of the building,” Fire Chief Dan Derby reported the following day.
“The smoke was down to hip-level and very close to breaching the doors and coming in the building. (Then) it would have been a totally different story.”
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