Mac Gadway was getting ready for dinner around 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 12 when his wife, Nancy, noticed smoke billowing from the nearby Kingdon Timber Mart.
The longtime staple of Harcourt’s business community, located at 1004 Chester Cres., burned down last week, taking more than 50 years of history with it. Gadway, whose uncle, Chester Schwandt, founded the original lumber operation shortly after the Second World War, remembers when the building was erected in the early 1970s.
Seeing such a key part of his community’s – and family – history go up in smoke has been a tough pill for Gadway to swallow.
“It was sort of devastating to watch it all unfold,” Gadway said. His home is located behind the Timber Mart property. Being the first to spot the flames, it was the Gadways who called it in.
“By 6:30 p.m. the roof was completely caved in. It’s just hard to imagine it could go that fast,” Gadway said. “I started working there when I was a kid… lots of memories. We built the new store in 1972, put an addition on it in 1990. There’s a lot of history there.”
Highlands East fire chief Chris Baughman said 35 firefighters from three local departments, including Dysart et al and Algonquin Highlands, responded to the blaze. He confirmed the main building, approximately 8,000 sq. ft., was a total loss.
“We were there until 11 a.m. the next morning. Fortunately, the rest of the outbuildings and the lumber weren’t touched,” Baughman said. “There were no injuries due to the fire, though one firefighter was injured from a slip and fall on the ice. He was treated by paramedics [on scene] and taken to hospital.”
Baughman said he contacted the Ontario Fire Marshal but was told they wouldn’t be investigating.
“They don’t feel it was suspicious and was unintentional,” the fire chief said.
Harcourt resident and Dysart Ward 3 coun. Tammy Donaldson said she was at the store a couple of hours before the fire.
“I had just got back home and dropped my stuff off when I came back out [to see it was on fire]. It smoked for so long, then I heard a bunch of pops and that’s when the flames really started.”
Her daughter, Jocelyn Donaldson, caught the fire on camera, with flames stretching 20-30 feet in the air. A longtime resident of the area, Jocelyn said it’s a major loss to the community.
“The fire took more than lumber and supplies with it. It took the quick stops on the way home. It took the trusted advice you could only get from someone who knows your name and your project,” Jocelyn said. “In a small community like ours, Timber Mart wasn’t just a store – it was part of our lives.
“To the owners and staff, please know how much you matter to this community. Your hard work built more than a business. You built relationships, trust and connection,” she added.
Kevin Dyck, co-owner of Kingdon Timber Mart and vice president of operations, told The Highlander his family is committed to rebuilding the store it purchased in 2024.
“We have been investing in that area ever since taking ownership, we had plans to do a big relaunch this year adding new product lines and updating our display area, so this was a real kick [to the gut],” Dyck said.
“We’re very much interested in rebuilding there. We don’t know what that looks like at this point. Being a commercial rebuild of an older property, we’ll have to go through the municipality. But we’ve already reached out to our head office to get some ideas on a new building plan. We want to get something put together as soon as possible,” he added.
Kevin and his dad, Don Dyck, have been back-and-forth to the site from their home base in the Peterborough area several times over the past week. They’ve met with the store’s eight members of staff, who Dyck said will be retained. Some have the capability to work from home, while others have been temporarily transferred to the Kingdon’s Timber Mart location in Gooderham.
Dyck hopes to have some level of service back in Harcourt by mid-March. With outbuildings and exterior stock surviving the blaze, he said there’s enough there to keep the business going.
“We’ll be sending some office trailers up so we can do some of the administrative and sales work out of there. On the building supply side of things, we’ll hopefully be up-and-running in the next couple of weeks,” Dyck said.
Gadway, who owned the operation for many years before selling in 2009, visited the charred remains of the building Feb. 16. He said it was difficult seeing the business he helped grow over three decades reduced to rubble.
“Pretty tough… Don said to me how sick he feels about all this, we feel it too,” Gadway said. “Yes, it’s a business at the end of the day. But it’s emotional and personal [for us] given all the history.”
