‘What can you do?’: Fire damages local donut store in Regina

A well-known donut shop in Regina is forced to shut its doors temporarily after a fire early Monday morning.

The smell of smoke still lingers in Country Corner Donuts, on the corner of Dewdney Avenue and Broad Street, after a fire broke out.

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“It’s not a very good start to the new year,” said the store’s owner, Vuong Pham.

Pham said when he got a call from the alarm system around 4 a.m. on Monday, he ran as quickly as he could to get to his shop.

“My thoughts were, ‘Oh my God, what happened? My business… I feel very bad because it is all my life in here.”

When Pham arrived in the store, he said thick smoke clouded the entire store — making it impossible to see even the lights left on in the shop.

“You can’t see anything. I have never seen smoke like that before.”

He saw the fire at the front counter, ran to open the doors and windows and turned on a fan to try to clear out the smoke. After that, he said he grabbed a small bucket to start dousing the fire with water.

“You have no choice, you just have to hurry to go; quick, quick, quick as you can.”

Store owner Vuong Pham said his hands are left covered in black soot after running into his smoke-filled business on Monday morning. (Abby Zieverink/980CJME)

Pham ended up calling 9-1-1 for the fire department’s help.

Now, parts of the front counter are charred black, walls are coated with soot and shards of glass covered the ground.

Store owner Vuong Pham said he tried to put out the fire, which broke out at the front counter, with buckets of water. (Abby Zieverink/980CJME)

He said knowing the support he has received from the community over the years running his store has made him stronger.

“You don’t need too much to live, the first and second, (is that) you love the store and the third thing (is) the people. The people are so nice and how long you live in here, see people come, see people leave, and see people die; that makes me stronger.”

Pham said he plans to reopen his store as soon as he can.

“That’s for sure, open again because this is a good place to live.”

He said the next steps will be talking to the insurance company. He said that while the damage is not too extensive to his equipment, smoke damage is the biggest issue.

The fire comes after many struggles for Pham at his store, including a string of vandalism attacks where someone broke several windows and put racist graffiti on the building. In less than a year, his store had been vandalised at least five times between 2021 and 2022.

“After that, people know me now more, and they come back. We were doing very well until the city shut down Dewdney Avenue last year and the year before.”

Regina Fire said there is no damage to the outside of the building, but said there is some damage inside Country Corner Donuts. (Abby Zieverink/980 CJME)

Pham said having Dewdney shut down for the revitalization project resulted in sales dropping at Country Corner Donuts by around 25 per cent.

“Then they opened in November, and we started doing better, and now this happened. I hope this doesn’t take too long, and we can reopen again.”

He said last week, and just this past weekend, business was busy but the fire put a damper on things.

“Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and even Sunday, crazy!  I don’t know where people are from; they all pulled out here. Donut, donut donut, soup and sandwich; and now Monday …. bam …. What can you do?” Pham sighed.

Regina Fire said the cause of the fire is under investigation.