Back in the spring, a historic building in our neighbourhood burned down. It was originally built as a hotel 184 years ago (that's old for these parts!). When I was growing up it was a sketchy bar and then a dance club-- both of which had apartments above-- but the whole building had actually been vacant for about 8 years since a previous fire gutted it. The building itself was still sound after the first fire; it was for sale at the time of the second fire, and the hope was that it could be used for something new and nice in the downtown core... but the second fire left it structurally unsound and it had to be torn down completely that weekend. Now all that remains are a couple of concrete staircases that lead only to a big hole where the building used to be. It's a sad scene, but happily no one was injured or killed and the firefighters managed to save/protect all the neighbouring buildings (which are all homes along the sidestreet).
