When the smoke had cleared, Tina’s Smoke Shop was gone. The gas bar and convenience store that has served the community of Beaver Lake Cree Nation — and the region — for more than 25 years was completely destroyed by a fire last Tuesday night.
And despite the loss of more than a quarter century of service and family history, the business’ namesake is most thankful that no one was injured.
“Our greatest relief is that everyone is OK,” said Tina Lameman, who could only watch as firefighters controlled the late night blaze that had already gutted her family business from spreading.
A worker at the store also lived in the building and was at home and sleeping when the fire first
broke out. Lameman’s relatives who live in homes near the store rescued the worker.
“The got him out and he is safe, and that’s the main thing,” she said, also acknowledging her deep appreciation for the response of the emergency crews who rushed to the fire.
“We thank the Beaver Lake Fire Department, Lac La Biche, Rich Lake and all the firefighters, the police and ambulance ... the utility guys came so fast,” she said. “They contained it so the gas, the pumps didn’t blow up ... It could have been a disaster.”
She said the loss of the building and business is hard to deal with for the family, but in the end it is only a structure — the important thing is that lives will go on.
Future of Tina’s
Whether or not the business will go on is still not known. Lameman said fire investigators are still going over the ruins of the store and the family has yet to make any firm plans about rebuilding.
The store first started up in 1992 as a little kiosk inside the Beaver Lake Cree Nation band office. Lameman’s father Al — who was a long-standing chief of Beaver Lake — and her mother let her operate a store that sold cigarettes. Tina’s Smoke Shop quickly expanded and moved to a new building and location at the Spruce Point campsite on the Beaver lake shoreline. The privately owned store, now selling fuel and retail convenience items stayed at that location until about a decade ago. Tina’s Smoke Shop re-opened near Tina’s grandmother’s home on the main highway that runs along the western border of the Cree Nation. While the Lameman family still own the business, its operation had been leased out to another company in recent years.
Until last Tuesday night, the store served not just local families, but travelers, visitors and workers heading through the area.
“We have a lot of long-standing customers — not just First Nation. Because of where it is, on the main road we have a lot of non-native people stopping by, campers and workers,” she said. “It’s well-known store. Everybody know’s Tina’s.”
Even as fire investigators worked on finding a cause for the blaze last week, people drove up to the store.
“The investigator say a guy pulled right up to the gas pumps. He didn’t notice at first. He’s a regular and it was part of his life,” Lameman said, adding that she had her own moment the day after the fire. “I realized I was out of coffee and thought I’d just go over to the store ... it’s gone. I can’t go there anymore.”
Lameman says her parents are dealing with the fire, but don’t yet know what their future plans are. Lac La Biche Regional Fire Chief John Kokotilo says the findings of the fire investigators were not known by POST publication time.
Spruce Point
To learn more about the Spruce Point campsite at Beaver Lake Cree Nation, click here
