Queens Bar and Grill in Star City was completely destroyed by fire on Friday night.(Facebook/Shawn N Noreen Mason)

By Angie Rolheiser

Total Loss

Owner of Star City bar talks about devastating fire that destroyed her business and home

Mar 16, 2021 | 1:07 PM

The owner of the bar in Star City is still in disbelief after fire destroyed the entire building on Friday night.

Nancy Graham has owned and operated Queen’s Bar and Grill for just under two years where her family and herself also lived in the upstairs.

The business was closed at the time of the incident as SaskPower had a scheduled outage for the town in order to trim trees.

“I was at my older sisters place visiting with her and I got the phone call from the security system that the fire alarm had gone off in the restaurant side,” Graham said. “The system had notified the fire department.”

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Graham told northeastNOW that prior to visiting her sister, she had been out of town and did a drive around the community upon arrival.

“We drove around to see where SaskPower had been cutting trees and just being nosey,” Graham said. “We had drove by the bar and noticed nothing wrong with the bar at all.”

It was about a half an hour later when she got the call from the security system.

“I opened the bar door and got hit by black smoke, there wasn’t any flames yet and you couldn’t see anything,” Graham said.

Emergency crews responded to the fire at around 7 p.m. and battled the flames until 4 a.m. on Saturday. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

“There is nothing left, it is burnt right into the basement,” Graham said. “There is one partial wall standing that they couldn’t knock down because the gas meter is on it.”

The insurance process is underway now and Graham is unsure whether a rebuild of the local gathering place is in the future.

“The outpouring from the community tells me that they would love for me to rebuild but it will depend on the insurance,” Graham said. “There really are no other buildings in town that would be suitable for something like that right now.”

In 1964, the bar in Star City burnt down due to a grease fire. The owners at that time rebuilt the bar that same year according to Graham.

Meanwhile, a GoFundMe page has been created to assist the family. Along with Graham and her family, there was a renter of another suite in the building that has also lost his home as well tools he used for doing odd jobs for those who needed help.

“We have nothing but the clothes on our back so we have had people giving us clothes,” Graham said. “When you have to start from scratch it is really hard.”

Graham extended thanks to the community for their support, as well as the Star City, Melfort, Tisdale, Naicam and Prince Albert Fire Departments for responding to the fire.

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angie.rolheiser@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @Angie_Rolheiser