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The basement of Bushwakker Brewing Company may be covered in mud, but manager Grant Frew isn’t focused on what was lost.
Instead, he’s talking about the people helping clean it up.
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A water service connection failure flooded the downtown Regina brewpub on Wednesday afternoon, sending water rushing into the basement, floating kegs and freezers and forcing the business to close while the damage was assessed.
Despite the chaos, Frew’s first reassurance was simple:
“The beer’s safe,” he said.
A wheelbarrow filled with mud and broken concrete sits inside Bushwakker Brewing Company during cleanup efforts following a major flood. (Jacob Bamhour/980 CJME)
Frew said he received a call at around 3 p.m. Wednesday, telling him there was a flood in the building. When he arrived, he said he quickly realized it was unlike anything the brewery had experienced before.
“I came down and I couldn’t believe that there was about 18 inches of water down in the basement,” he said.
“Watching the empty kegs float by and watching the freezers float by, it was a little distressing at the moment.”
Water continued pouring into the building for about two hours before workers were able to stop the flow. At one point, Frew said the scene reminded him of a movie.
“You’ve seen the movie Titanic, you know, when the water was coming in and everything started to float,” he said.
“That’s the feeling I was having, like this is crazy.”
Workers shovel mud and debris from the basement of Bushwakker Brewing Company after a water service connection failure flooded the downtown Regina brewpub. (Jacob Bamhour/980 CJME)
The flood damaged storage areas, freezers, coolers and office equipment. A payroll computer was also submerged, creating additional challenges for staff.
Frew said about 50 employees were affected by the temporary closure.
“That’s the other thing that I feel really bad about, is we have 50 staff that are not going to be working for a little while,” he said.
But even while discussing the damage, Frew repeatedly returned to the support Bushwakker has received from its staff, customers and neighbouring businesses. Several staff members spent Thursday shovelling mud and helping remove debris from the basement.
“We’ve had a lot of great people around us that have been rallying around us and working very, very hard to get this cleaned up and get us back on our feet,” he said.
“That just speaks to the resiliency and just the friendships that we’ve developed over 35 years.”
Piles of mud left behind by floodwaters cover part of the basement floor at Bushwakker Brewing Company. (Jacob Bamhour/980 CJME)
The City of Regina said restoring water service to residents and businesses on the 2200 block of Dewdney Avenue remains its top priority.
“The next steps will focus on testing the water to ensure it is safe to drink and advising residents and businesses when they can resume normal water use,” the city said in a statement.
The city said the source of the leak was a water service connection, but it does not yet know the specific cause of the failure.
Frew said he’s concerned about the people around him who remain affected by the disruption.
“There’s a lot of restaurants and bars on this block and, of course, there’s all the residents that live in this building. They have no water,” he said.
“We’ve got to get this fixed and just move forward.”
A waterline marks how high floodwaters reached inside the basement of Bushwakker Brewing Company. (Jacob Bamhour/980 CJME)
The flood is the latest challenge for a business that has already weathered the COVID-19 pandemic and years of disruptions caused by the Dewdney Avenue revitalization project.
Still, Frew said there’s little point dwelling on what happened.
“We’ll get through this. We’ve been through worse,” he said.
“The world has bigger, more severe problems than what we’re dealing with right now. It’s all about keeping it in perspective.”
Instead, he said he’s focused on getting the business cleaned up and open for customers.
City of Regina crews excavate outside Bushwakker Brewing Company as they investigate the water service connection failure that flooded the building. (Jacob Bamhour/980 CJME)
“We’re going to clean up. We’re going to rebuild. We’re going to improve. We’re going to modernize,” Frew said.
“We’re going to continue to proudly serve our customers that we’ve been doing for the last 35 years.”
Bushwakker’s basement may be covered in mud, but Frew said he’s confident the brewery will stay afloat.
