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Lake Country loses Winfield Bakery to a fire

The Winfield Bakery engulfed in flames on March 10

A Lake Country staple was taken from the public in March when the Winfield Bakery burned down.

It happened on March 10 about 20 minutes after the store closed for the day. The Lake Country Fire Department responded immediately to battle the blaze, and with the help of the RCMP, determined no one was inside or injured.

The area of Main Street and Berry Road was closed for several hours as crews battled the blaze. BCHydro also cut power to parts of the area.

In the aftermath, the fire was deemed accidental but the cause hasn’t been determined.

That night, hundreds of Okanagan residents took to social media to voice their sadness, memories of the beloved bakery, and condolences to the owners that took over the business in 2019.

While the GoFundMe page was set up right away by the previous owner, Fritz Priwall. The current owners had plans to reopen the bakery in a different location close by but it was announced in May that the bakery would not reopen due to the establishment being ‘grossly uninsured’ to deal with a disaster.

A couple weeks after the incident, Lake Country residents were urged to rethink their actions when disaster strikes as many people across the street filmed the blaze instead of calling emergency services.

“There were 30 people filming it and they had one phone call,” said former Coun. Bill Scarrow. “When you see an emergency or a horrific accident or something like that and your first impulse is to take out your cell phone and film it I’d like you to change your cognitive maps where your first instinct is to take out your cell phone and call 911 and then film it.”

“What if there had been somebody in that building?” said now Mayor Blair Ireland. “There should have been 30 phone calls not just one.”


@cunninghamjordy
jordy.cunningham@kelownacapnews.com

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Jordy Cunningham

About the Author: Jordy Cunningham

Hailing from Ladner, B.C., I have been passionate about sports, especially baseball, since I was young. In 2018, I graduated from Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops with a Bachelor of Journalism degree
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