Residents of the Eastern Townships are rallying behind employees of a duck farm who were left jobless after a fire last week.
The blaze at Brome Lake Ducks left more than 100 people without work and extensive damage to the facilities means it will likely be months before the plant is back up and running.
No ducks were injured in the fire but the farm’s production facility and office were gutted. An investigation into the fire’s cause is underway.
Among those affected was father of five Travis Rutland.
"It's gone, it's literally gone," he said. "There's no nice way to say it. The building itself, the job, there's no transferring it to something else, there's nowhere to go."
Rutland's wife Josee has begun working two jobs to make ends meet.
"It's devestating as far as wages cut for a family of seven," she said.
Karl Dumoulin was also left without work by the fire. He said his coworkers were "like a family."
A GoFundMe page has been started to help workers like Rutland. The page has already garnered more than $15,000 in donations to help cover employees’ basic expenses until their unemployment insurance kicks in. The goal is to raise $25,000.
The page was started by real estate agent Reg Gauthier.
“Obviously, they were saddened and confused and started stressing automatically right away,” he said of the workers. “These people have payments to make, mortgages and children to feed.”
The fire is the company’s third in less than a year.
Scoty'z Restaurant in the nearby town of Foster is also planning a spaghetti dinner to help out, as are other stores offering discounts to Brome Lake Duck employees. Melanie Bureau, who works at Scoty'z, said it's not unusual for people in this area to pull together.
"It's a small town, a lot of them come here," she said. "It's personal, it's not just a company, it's friends and family."
