INNISFAIL - It was 3 a.m. on Aug. 2 when Rajwinda Kaur heard a bang she will never forget.
“When I saw someone banging on my door I was scared. I didn't open the door for them,” she said. “And again, I heard the banging on the door.
“The ladies in the corridor were saying, ‘oh my God, oh my God,” added Kaur. “I then thought something happened. It was all smokey.”
Within minutes the 115-year-old Globe Coliseum building on Innisfail’s Main Street was engulfed in flames. Firefighters and police helped residents on the second floor escape, including Kaur.
“I didn’t even have the chance to bring my documents with me,” said Kaur, a native of India who moved to Innisfail last March with her husband Hardeep Singh after five years in Vancouver. “Everything was in the building except my phone and my jacket.
“I'm scared even now,” she added. “If I hear some noise around me I can't sleep in the nighttime.”
There are four second-floor residential suites in the historic Globe Coliseum building. All residents lost everything.
On the ground-level floor there was the new vape store and Inspiration Ink Tattoos, the latter a business that has been at the Globe Coliseum for the past 12 years.
“I was overwhelmed with shock, like that's what happened to other people. It doesn't happen to you,” said owner Brittnie Meeds, whose tattoo business sustained extensive smoke and water damage from the blaze.
“That business was my baby, so it was really hard to see it gone. We went down there and saw it on fire and it was overwhelming.”
But the community rallied to support Kaur, Meeds and other impacted residents and businesses, including the popular 42-year-old Gift Loft store next door in the Jackson Building that also sustained extensive damage.
On Aug. 18, there was a packed house at the Innisfail Royal Canadian Legion Branch #104 who came for a night of CanAm Wrestling.
It was a benefit outing for the fire victims of Aug. 2.
“This is probably one of the largest crowds that CanAm has drawn. We're just really happy with everybody coming out. And it just shows the giving spirit,” said Don Harrison, chair of the legion’s entertainment committee.
“We need to do whatever we need to do to get these folks and businesses back on their feet.”
Community builder Grace Gresos knows about loss and heartache. Her family’s Hazelwood Estates subdivision home burnt to the ground on May 16.
A month later on June 16, Can Am hosted a benefit wrestling night for her family.
But on Aug. 18 Gresos came to the event solely to help others.
“It’s time to pay back. I want to thank the whole community for helping me and my family,” said the grateful Gresos. “We are just here tonight to support fire victims.”
Otto Gentile, CanAm’s chief executive officer, opened wrestling night on Aug. 18 by telling the boisterous crowd his organization was going to raise as much as it could for Innisfail fire victims, including those from the most recent house fire on Aug. 15 at 5230 – 41st St. Cres.
“We heard there was another one on Tuesday (Aug. 15) and we’re going to see what we can do to help as well,” Gentile told the cheering crowd. “Hopefully, with your support we will continue to help everybody in Innisfail that deserves our help.”
Gentile, who has been in the wrestling business since 1988, is insisting his organization must always have an eye on the welfare of the communities it serves, and he’s done that for Innisfail since CanAm’s first show in town a year ago.
He announced to the crowd CanAm had just signed a second one-year lease with the Innisfail legion to stage monthly wrestling shows.
“I think the legion is happy with what we're doing, and they're obviously making money from what our show is bringing in,” said Gentile. “It just means that Innisfail has accepted us as part of their own so it's just amazing. They make you feel so wanted and welcomed.”
With the wrestling benefit on Aug. 18 it also shows that CanAm’s business model of being part of the community and helping others fits in well with the town’s longstanding spirit of generosity for others in need of healing and moving forward.
With that spirit Grace Gresos’ new house will begin construction this week.
Rajwinda Kaur and her husband, who have been living in a hotel since the Aug. 2 fire, have found a new apartment and will move in Sept. 1.
And Brittnie Meeds, smiling broadly with her workers at the Aug. 18 legion benefit show, is also already looking optimistically to the future.
Meeds has declared she is going to rebuild and is looking for new lease space in town.
“There's a lot of memories that were in that building but I’m optimistic. We’re going to rebuild,” said Meeds. “The community has really rallied around us, and that means the world; more than money.
“It feels good to be part of a community that's so willing to stand behind us right now.”
