‘We will rebuild’

Iconic Walkers Restaurant significantly damaged by fire

As West Hants firefighters battled a rapidly spreading grease fire, the owners of Windsor’s iconic Walkers Restaurant stood across the street, looking on in disbelief.

Passerby stopped to offer hugs and kind words as smoke billowed out of the roof of the diner, which has been in Windsor since 1958.

“We’re not going to let this stop us. We will be back,” said Joanne Barnett, who owns the restaurant with her husband, AJ Reid. They took over the business in August 2022.

“We will rebuild. It’s a total tear down. There’s no saving anything in there,” she said, after speaking with firefighters at the scene Sept. 29.

“The whole kitchen is gone.”

Paul Maynard, a deputy fire chief with the Hantsport Fire Department who served as the operational deputy chief on scene, said Windsor Fire Department was paged out at 1:39 p.m. for a grease fire. An officer from another fire department was close by and reported that it was a working structure fire, which triggered autoaid protocols.

“Crews made a very aggressive interior attack; made a quick knock down. Unfortunately, there is significant damage to the entire restaurant at this time,” said Maynard.

About 30 firefighters from Windsor, Hantsport and Brooklyn were on scene, and Wolfville firefighters provided stand-in coverage. RCMP and Nova Scotia Power also attended.

Maynard said grease fires are “almost like a flash fire — so they burn extremely hot and extremely fast.”

While fire suppression efforts often suffice, in older wooden buildings, there’s a risk the fire will spread into the ceiling, which is what occurred at Walkers Restaurant.

“It was a rapidly growing fire and caused a significant amount of damage here,” he said.

Maynard said everyone at the restaurant evacuated safely. Some staff suffered minor smoke inhalation from the initial fire but he said they were checked out and seemed OK.

As fire crews began packing up, Reid was already on the phone with a real estate agent, looking to see if there’s a place they can temporarily lease. Barnett was hopeful they could secure a site soon.

In a Facebook post, the couple said it was determined that a deep frier malfunctioned and overheated. The kill switch on the unit didn’t engage, which overpowered everything, leading to a grease fire.

On Oct. 2, the owners announced via social media that they would begin offering a buffet breakfast as well as a few breakfast items at Magic Pizza, a restaurant they purchased in the summer of 2023, from 7-11 a.m.