A Windsor printing business is filling orders again just weeks after a fire destroyed its building on Drouillard Rd.
The fire, on October 16, caused $500,000 damage. Investigators from the Office of the Ontario Fire Marshall could not determine the cause.
Doug Hogan, who owns Hogan's Printing along with his twin brother Dan, arrived at 5:15 that morning after a neighbour across the street reported the fire.
"I wouldn't wish it upon anybody, let's put it that way," said Hogan. "I got there at 5:15 in the morning and I stood out front, and I ended up going home at 8:15 at night. The emotions and the thoughts are -- I just can't describe what went through my head. We have 13 employees, and everybody's been paid, and everybody's been caught up, and everybody's pitched in. We've caught up in a real short time."
Deputy Fire Chief with the Windsor Fire and Rescue Services, Andrea DeJong told BlackburnNews.com flames were shooting out of the windows and into the street when firefighters arrived.
Hogan said the business has moved to a new location at 1636 Tecumseh Rd. E, between Windemere Rd. and Lincoln Rd. He expressed gratitude to the community for helping get the business back on its feet.
"Live in a community like Windsor, and have friends and business partners that really care and really want to support you. We're very lucky," he said. "They reached out to me. Somebody gave me a building."
Photo courtesy of Dan Hogan.
Last Friday, Hogan's Printing completed its first order since the fire on Friday, and unsurprisingly, it held special meaning for Hogan. The order was from the first responder who had alerted Hogan's sister and a young family living next door to the printing business and helped them escape harm.
"His name is Frank Bower. Frank has been a friend of mine for many, many years," said Hogan. "He's a big baseball coach in town, and he needed some shirts for a pitching clinic, and that was the first job that came off my new machine."
For the past 21 years, Hogan and his brother have organized the Joe Hogan Memorial Golf Tournament and has raised over $1-million for a number of charitable causes in Windsor-Essex, including the Ronald McDonald House, the Windsor Spitfires Foundation, the John McGivney Children's Centre and the Windsor-Essex Cancer Centre Foundation.