The remains of a shop that burned down near Ste.Genevieve Tuesday


A 30x50 shop structure near Ste. Genevieve is a total loss following a fire early Tuesday morning.

Tache Fire Chief Peter Skjaerlund says the call came in just after 1am.

"When we arrived on-scene, the building had been burning for quite some time and actually was almost down.  The homeowner had got up during the night to stoke the wood stove, noticed an orange glow and called it in."

Skjaerlund says no one was hurt in the early morning blaze but most of the items inside the shop were lost - including a number of cars and snowmobiles.

"There was a number of different vehicles including cars, snowmobiles and a couple four-wheelers that were destroyed."

Skjaerlund says 19 firefighters were needed to put the blaze out.  He adds unfortunately, when a fire is that involved by the time they arrive, there is not much crews can do.

"At that point we basically make sure it doesn't get into many of the out-buildings surrounding it.  In this case, they were all at a fair distance and the wind was in our favor.  It wasn't taking any of the smoke or embers over top of any of the buildings."

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.