'What do we do now?' Bay de Verde workers head home to Harbour Breton, Englee
'People don't know where to steer to anymore because there's no jobs,' says plant worker
The impact of the fire at the Bay de Verde fish plant is widespread but workers are the ones hit with the initial blow.
- Quinlan Brothers to rebuild 'bigger and better than ever' in Bay de Verde
- 'Lucky is an understatement,' says Bay de Verde resident whose home undamaged in plant fire
Wanda Langdon and Aloysius Augot, from Harbour Breton arrived in the community Sunday ready to go to work processing crab but are now faced with the grim reality of going home empty handed.
"It's sad. It's more than sad … we've made so many friends here and it was like, Quinlans was family," said Langdon.
"I don't know. What do we do now? We're going home … there's a lot of people that we're not going to see again and we hope for the best."
"In our community there's no work so we had to go elsewhere for it ... that's why we came here," Augot told CBC.
"My options now is to go back home, maybe I'll retire now ... but I would like to keep working here if the plant was still working."
The Quinlan Brothers plant was completely destroyed after a fire started early Monday morning.
At peak season, the plant had employed 700 workers, some coming from Thailand, their third year commuting to Newfoundland for work in the fish processing sector.
It's not quite as far as Thailand, but Jeff Fillier and his wife Deanna made the 1,000 km trek from Englee on Newfoundland's northern peninsula.
They came to Bay de Verde with lots of hope and thankful to have a job. Now with emotions running high, coming to grips with the loss, they don't know where to turn.
"I don't know how to put it in words what's going on, people don't know where to steer to anymore because there's no jobs in their communities," said Deanna.
"I'm still good for a little while on EI but that's only gonna last so long, and then we're in the same boat as everyone else here," said Jeff.
"Everybody got bills to pay and some people got no money coming in right now, government's got to step in and do something."
Economic blow
The loss of the fish plant will also have an immediate impact on the regional economy.
The plant workers were key customers for many businesses in the area, including the Gasland convenience store in nearby Old Perlican, which is also owned by Quinlans.
"You don't have those people coming into the community. You don't have workers driving back and forth here everyday, so all we're depending on is the people that live in the community," said general manager, Michelle Squires.
"Once the plants start, this place is a totally different place — it booms, you're talking like four times the sales on everything."
While the plant owners plan to rebuild, the future is still very much up in the air, putting residents and workers on edge.
Squires said that while she had no doubt Quinlans would rebuild, saying they're very dedicated to the industry and employment in the area, it's going to be a rough road. She's trying to stay optimistic.
"It's gonna be rough, definitely gonna be rough until everything gets straightened out," she said.
"There's talk of people getting sent to different plants to go to work and there's [talk] of crab getting sent, so I feel a little bit better today."
Riding out the storm
The provincial government has come forward to offer some assistance to the town and people affected but picking up the pieces is going to take time.
"I think probably realistically the only thing we're gonna see is an extension on the EI … there's only so many jobs out there," said Squires.
"If we can get as many people employed in different areas that still live in this area, obviously they're going to come back here with their money and hopefully the transition's not going to be as bad."
The plant has become somewhat of an anchor for the area and people like Deanna Fillier hope to find work in Bay de Verde again.
"There's nothing back home ... so hopefully they would get a new plant and up and running again for us to come back and work again."
with files from Terry Roberts and David Cochrane