Trucker says Devastating Fire “Builds Character”

By Teona Baetu

FERGUS, ON—Last Saturday, Andy Vandermarel was on a run to Amarillo, Texas when he got a call from his wife with some terrible news: Vandermarel Trucking, the business they built together over the past 24 years had just burned down.

“I didn’t see the damage until late Monday morning in Texas when a customer lent me a computer so I could read the news. That’s when I saw the extent of the damage,” Vandermarel says.

“How do I describe that? I don’t get upset or emotional too quickly about things…I’m back at the office now, walking around the burned buildings. It’s difficult to see it.”

At 9:00 a.m. on Nov. 16, firefighters received a call about the fire and remained on the scene until 5:00 p.m. They battled flames for four hours and were able to retrieve two trucks, a few computers and business documents and files, but Centre Wellington Fire Chief Brad Patton estimates the damage at $1.5 million.

Vandermarel is thankful that he was not alone when he first heard the shocking news.

“I was with Brian Lee, one of our most senior employees and I truly, truly appreciated that he was with me at that moment – he was a huge support just to have him to talk to when you’re all alone out there,” he says 

“The emotional part for me was seeing how the employees pulled together and got things going. They worked all weekend to save computers and files and try to keep things moving – I was very impressed with that. That’s when you recognize how good of a staff you have.”

Vandermarel and his wife, Mary, started the company out of their home, a dairy farm near Tillsonburg, ON, with two trucks. Vandermarel was a truck driver in the Netherlands before immigrating to Canada in the early ‘70s, and after starting a family and a few years in the agricultural field, he decided to return to his first love – trucking.

The company moved to the facility in Fergus in 1996 and it was renovated in 2006.

“You can look at it as a disaster or you can look at it as an opportunity to start again. I see it as an opportunity.”

A positive man with an easy laugh, Vandermarel says he won’t let the fire take his business away.

“If you’re 25 years in this industry, you’re going to get a couple of hard knocks over the years. This one is by far the hardest I ever had, but it builds character, I guess,” he says laughing.

“Every trucking company that’s going through things knows how tough this industry is. We are very impressed with the whole trucking community and how supportive they’ve been—even companies we don’t even know supported us and that to me is truly impressive,” he continues.

Right now, their business is running out of a neighbor’s building, on a couple of computers that the firefighter retrieved from the fire and on cell phones. 

“We’re thankful that our drivers are very understanding and that our customers are not giving up on us when they don’t get a hold of us right away. It’s very difficult—we’re just operating on cell phones right now and that’s a bit of a handicap.”

By the end of next week, Vandermarel expects they’ll have a complete phone system again.

“We will continue to fight and we’re going to overcome it. We’re not going anywhere. We’re going to keep going,” he says. 

He’s proud of his family, his wife and three sons, Anthony, Bob and David for how they handled the situation and how they worked with firemen and police officers to put out the fire. Together, they’re now working on cleaning up and rebuilding.

“They are the heart of the business now and they definitely showed that they are the future for the business and that they want to go on with it,” he says. 

The cause of the fire is still unknown and the investigation continues. Authorities ask that anyone with information call the Wellington County OPP at 1-888-310-1122 or anonymously call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or submit a tip on-line at www.crimestoppersguelphwellington.com. Those providing tips may be eligible for a reward from Crime Stoppers of up to $2,000.


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