A large fire has destroyed the Green Pig Country Market on Fredericton Road.

Salisbury firefighters were preparing for Monday night training when they received the call about the well known business.

Fire Chief Bradley MacLeod says, ” We were down at the fire hall getting ready to start our training at 7:30 pm. We were just mapping that out when the call came in at around 7:50 pm. So we had a good group of people there already. We immediately got on the trucks and made our way up. There were some initial reports throughout the day that there was a burning smell and smoke.
So our initial thoughts were, that there was probably a brush fire nearby that someone’s burning but as we were coming up Fredericton Road, about a kilometre from getting to the Green Pig, we could see a large amount of black smoke crossing the Fredericton Road.”

He says they knew there was a working structure fire at that point, and began calling in mutual aid from Elgin, Moncton, Petitcodiac and Riverview.

Water had to be shuttled in from different locations.

“There were some flames coming out of the back of the structure, and there was an addition that was built on just behind the Main store that was on fire at the time when we got there. The roof also collapsed with the winds fuelling the flames,” MacLeod adds.

“It was challenging because It’s a large structure, and you can get lost in it very easily. There were rooms popping up that we didn’t even know existed in there. Our worry is always the roof caving in, and fire goes up into the attic, and it burns the trusses. Then you spray a bunch of water up there which creates a lot of weight on the ceiling which will make it collapse,” MacLeod adds.

After over four hours of fighting the fire, the building is believed to be a total loss.

“It was a difficult evening here for everyone,” says Salisbury Mayor Robert Campbell. “Obviously our heartfelt prayers are with business owners, the Beckwith family, and everyone that’s being affected. Definitely a difficult evening in the village but we will persevere.”

Nicole Leblanc has lived in Salisbury for three years, “It’s a devastating loss to our community,” she says.  “But the entire community will be behind them because that’s what kind of community Salisbury is.”

Many posts offered support for the well-known business that has seen a lot of visitors over the past 15 years, “An outpouring of love to the Beckwith family.  We still don’t know the full extent of everything but there’s no question they’ll have the full support of everyone in this community to help them out there. They’re part of our family and they’re a huge part of this village,” Campbell adds.

There’s no word on a cause yet, but Chief MacLeod adds, that it does not appear to be suspicious.

Meantime, the Owners of the Green Pig Country Market have thanked everyone for their love and kind messages after a long and sad night…

They say it has been a really special place to bring family and meet friends while receiving items they have worked so hard to grow…

A post also states they will come back even better because they are Green Pig Grown.