Standing in front of a pile of bricks and rubble that had been their family business a day earlier, Lola Vidakovic, her sister Iva and their mother Vesna still can’t believe the pizza shop is gone.

“It’s heartbreaking, it’s a shock,” Lola Vidakovic told CBC News on Tuesday, one day after fire ripped through their building on Northumberland Street.

The flames burned through their 17-year-old family business, Ayr Village Pizza. It also destroyed Hitched Coffee and a second-floor apartment. One person was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

“Just in 12 hours, from the start of the day to the end, it’s not here anymore,” Lola Vidakovic said, adding she has a lifetime of memories of the pizza shop.

Iva Vidakovic said they were thankful no one was hurt.

“We’re thinking of all the people that lost their homes upstairs. That’s our main focus … You can rebuild the building, but you can’t replace people,” Iva Vidakovic said.

Tenants displaced

Lexi Ambrose was one of the tenants who was living in the building.

“The fire has taken everything I own and my home … I feel overwhelmed,” she said in a written statement to CBC News.

“Overwhelmed with the loss of my home and watching it burn. Overwhelmed with the loss of my things. Overwhelmed with the emotions of seeing so many people impacted,” Ambrose wrote, but added she also felt “overwhelmed with the incredible support that I and the rest of the tenants have received from those closest to us and complete strangers.”

She says that generosity has allowed her to purchase day-to-day essentials “so that I can live and begin to heal.”

“I, like everyone else, have had belongings that are irreplaceable reduced to nothing but rubble. We haven’t had the ability to try to salvage anything, and I don’t know if we ever will. Coping with this fact has been one of the hardest parts,” Ambrose said.

Ambrose’s sister, Eden Stroyan, has set up an online fundraiser to help and it has already surpassed its initial fundraising goal of $5,000 to help Ambrose replace immediate essentials like clothing, household items and materials for college.

“The fire has left her starting from scratch. She lost her clothes, furniture, school supplies, personal items — everything that made her space a home,” Stroyan said in the fundraiser.

“As a student preparing to graduate, this unexpected loss is overwhelming, both emotionally and financially. “

Decision to demolish the building

Ayr is located in the Township of North Dumfries and Mayor Sue Foxton says the community is devastated.

“It was a beautiful historical building and even the owner, he wanted so badly to save the façade because it’s so historical and he’ll do everything [he] can to try and replicate it now,” she said, highlighting that the structure was build in the 1800s.

“[The fire] could have wiped out the whole court. It could have spread from building to building because a lot of them are still made of the old wood. But our firefighters know that and so they doused the other buildings to prevent it from spreading. They were here until four in the morning.”

Garrett Cleghorn, the chief building official for the township, says the building had to come down after the fire.

“Once the floors on the second story had collapsed into the first story, we knew at that point that the structural stability of the building was very much in question,” he said.

“We discovered that we had to continue and [demolish] the whole building to the ground to secure the site that night.”

He says he can’t say whether the fire could have been prevented because investigators are still trying to figure out what caused the fire.

Foxton says all emergency alarms in the building were tested just a week before the fire. Cleghorn says the next step for now is cleanup.

“We’ve released the site to the owner. It’s going to be his responsibility to kind of work with his teams, his insurance company and his contractor to get the site cleaned up,” Cleghorn said.

Jeffrey Smith, the township’s fire chief, says it appears the fire most likely started on the second floor. As of Tuesday afternoon, damages were estimated at $800,000 for just the building. That figure is expected to rise as they get more information from the tenants and nearby businesses.

“We have a very strong fire prevention program. My understanding that this is the first downtown fire we’ve had in about 10 years or so,” Smith said.

Lola Vidakovic says they’re not sure when they’ll be able to open up again in a new location.

“Right now it’s a little just overwhelming because we’re figuring out our next steps. But to be honest, all we need is that constant support,” she said.

“We really love our community. And we want to thank everyone for always coming in, saying hi … Hopefully we’ll see you guys still around town. We’re still in the neighborhood.”