Family vows to rebuild generations-old car dealership gutted by fire
"I just want everybody to know that we'll be back as soon as we can," said Jim Corneil, Cotrac's principal dealer, in an interview with CBC News on Friday alongside his wife, Trish, who is a local lawyer.
"I think our community needs us to be there, you know," he continued. "We just want to rebuild and get back to business as normal, as soon as possible."
As he spoke, investigators from Ontario's fire marshal's (OFM) office combed through what remained, searching for a cause to the blaze, which broke out around 10 p.m. on Wednesday.
Fire crews arrived at the Currie Road property within minutes, and found the sales centre of the dealership fully engulfed in flames — the start of a blaze that would last several hours and force the temporary evacuation of some nearby residents.
Jim recalled witnessing the fire's early moments. After coming back from London and dropping off his son at home, he drove into town to fill up at the gas station adjacent to the dealership.
"When I turned the corner, I noticed smoke in the building," he said. "By the time I wheeled into the dealership and got to the front of the building … the fire department was coming up already."
The couple could only watch as the dealership went up in smoke — a place steeped in decades of Corneil family history, and a place where Jim spent his formative years learning the trade.
Jim's great-grandfather opened a dealership on the site in the 1930s. Its current name, Cotrac, is a portmanteau of Corneil Tractors, which the business sold for a period before pivoting back to cars.
"I was standing there watching it burn. I don't mean to sound selfish, (but) people are just like, 'you know, It's just stuff.' It's like, yeah … but it still hurts," Trish said tearfully.
"The loss wasn't just stuff. It was a whole family legacy. It was a whole lifestyle."
Four new cars in the showroom were lost in the fire, along with business awards, mementos and other priceless memorabilia collected over the decades. A 1930 Ford Model A belonging to Jim's father, Phil, who previously ran the business and still works there, was also lost to the flames.
More than 50 firefighters from Dutton Dunwich, Central Elgin, Southwold and West Elgin helped battle the raging fire, said Barry Gregory, Dutton Dunwich's deputy fire chief.
Crews found heavy smoke throughout and intense heat at the front of the business, along with some fire on the main floor that was quickly extinguished. Upstairs, however, they found intense heat and smoke that was "unbearable," Gregory said.
"Something was already deep-seated going on. At that point, the ceiling was starting to give away, it was dropping onto them, so we evacuated everybody out. It was shortly after that it breached the roof."
High flames, wind and drifting embers led to the evacuation of an apartment building and several houses on nearby Centre Street. Residents were allowed to return around 5 a.m. Wednesday.
Gregory says one firefighter from West Lorne suffered a shoulder injury and took on some smoke during the incident, and was taken to hospital by paramedics and discharged soon after.
Currie Road has been closed through Dutton's core since the fire happened to protect the scene for OFM's investigation, and the road will stay that way until they're done on site, Gregory said.
Jim suspects the fire originated in the oldest part of the building on the second floor, above the showroom, and may have been electrical in nature. However, he stresses he's waiting for official confirmation from investigators.
A damage estimate was not immediately available, but both Jim and Gregory think it will likely be in the millions.
The couple has been overwhelmed by the support they've received, and Trish says customers from outside Dutton have driven to the community just to show their encouragement.
"We've had people offer money," she adds. "One customer jokingly, the other day, he goes, 'I got $200,000 in the bank. You're welcome to it, Jim, because I'm just gonna spend it at your place anyway.'"
The family is determined to reopen, and Jim says they're looking at finding a potential temporary spot as they deal with insurance and everything else that comes with running a dealership.
"We don't have the paperwork to even sell vehicles right this second," he said. "Hopefully next week we can get replacement keys, replacement ownerships so we can get back to selling."
Looking into the future, the couple says their teenage son, Jake, who works at the shop, has expressed interest in following in Jim and Phil's footsteps.
"We were talking about the rebuild and what that's going to look like. I said, 'a lot of that's going to depend on whether you're going to be the next person to take it over."
"Oh, hell yeah, Mom," Trish recalled him saying. "That's the reason why we're not going to skimp on the new build, because I'm going to get it up and running, and I'm going to make lots of money."
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