Monday, September 2, 2013

St. Jacobs market burns


The main market building at the St. Jacobs Farmers Market burned down early Monday morning.

Four fire departments fought to keep the blaze from spreading to the adjacent building which houses the livestock auction facilities for the Ontario Livestock Exchange (OLEX), a restaurant and flea market.

Lightning may be responsible for the fire that was spotted at 1:45 a.m., by then breaking through the roof of the two-storey, 24,000-square-foot post-and-beam wooden structure.

The market, OLEX and adjacent factory outlet mall and land for other retail and hotel buildings was developed by Mercedes Corporation controlled by the late Milo Shantz. He also owned much of downtown St. Jacobs.

The St. Jacobs Farmers Market is the largest in Southwestern Ontario, attracting produce, bakery and meat vendors from local farms and vendors who bought both at the Ontario Food Terminal in Toronto and the Mennonite produce auction at Elmira.

About 60 businesses are affected by the fire.

It is a major tourist attraction, including bus tours from China and Europe.