A fire ripped through a building destroying two businesses in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The blaze started in joiner Bruce McGarva’s workship at Heathhall Industrial Estate before spreading next door to Galloway Hire Tools.
The cost of the damage is estimated to be more than £300,000.
Devastated Mr McGarva, who has run the family firm for 40 years, told the Standard: “The workshop has totally gone, the roof has collapsed in and all of the machinery is just gone now — but we will not be beaten by this. We will just keep going.” Lynda Robertson, a partner in Galloway Hire Tools, said the destruction caused will mean “a new reality for us”.
Emergency services raced to the scene following reports of a fire around 2am on Saturday.
By the time they arrived, the flames had spread from Mr McGarva’s workshop to Galloway Hire Tools.
They battled for three-and-a-half hours to douse the flames.
Mr McGarva, who rents the premises, said he had customers’ goods inside, including stairs and windows ready to be installed.
He added: “We’ve been fortunate in so much as we’ve been able to save the office because it’s separate from the workshop. We are just waiting for the people that own the place to come back to us and see if they’ve got anything else available on this site.
“The boys who were working in the workshop have been sent out to sites and we’ve really got no idea where we will go now.”
Heartbroken Mrs Robertson said: “The fire started next door and then it’s just come through and devastated the building as it stands.
“The shop, the office and the storage area have all been gutted really,so we’ve just got the outside workshop to run from at the moment.
“It’s been completely gutted at one end and there is smoke and water damage throughout. We’ve lost a lot of stuff in there and the storage bit is actually the worst in terms of damage.
“The fire brigade were actually back this morning because there’s still smoke in there.
“We’re still trying to give a service to our customers through the workshop that is still here because there are people who still have machines in for repair and servicing.
“It’s going to be a big change for a long while because we are used to a big showroom and office, but that obviously isn’t going to be the case. We are still trying to operate business as usual, but it will definitely be a new reality for us.”
Police have confirmed that the cause of the fire has yet to be officially determined and an investigation into the blaze is to be launched in due course.
They also asked for anyone who might have been in the industrial estate around the time of the fire and noticed anything unusual to contact them on 101.
