Browns Cleaners owner suffers third setback with fire at City Centre outlet

If bad things do happen in threes, Malcolm MacGregor has every reason to expect some good news any day now.

The owner of Browns Cleaners suffered the crowning piece to his triad of misfortune on Saturday morning when a fire broke out at his City Centre dry cleaning outlet.

According to Ottawa Fire Services platoon chief Jim Cockram, damage estimates and the cause of the blaze, which was largely confined to a steaming room atop the otherwise one-storey building, have yet to be determined.

MacGregor speculated, however, that it might have been an electrical fire.

“The power was still on,” he says, “so that might not be the case, but I can’t think of what else it might be, to tell you the truth, because there’s nothing else up there that might cause a fire. Just a fan and the drive that takes clothes up there to be steamed. There’s not even a light up there.“

Between 10 and 20 workers were in the building when the fire broke out at around 9:30 a.m. All were evacuated safely. The fire was well under control within 30 minutes of firefighters arriving.

MacGregor’s recent spate of woes began on April 9, when a fire at Bank Street and Fifth Avenue in the Glebe destroyed numerous businesses there, including one of his Browns Cleaners outlets.

Ottawa police have ruled the Glebe fire was arson and an investigation is ongoing.

Then, nine days ago, MacGregor’s wife, Heather, was injured in a freak accident at Tops Car Wash on Richmond Road.

“My wife was picking up her car there,” he recalled, “and another car went out of control and hit one of the employees who flew into Heather, knocked her down and broke her back in two places.

“Hopefully I’m done with bad news now.”

It is not known when the business will re-open.

The fire came at a busy time for firefighters. The service had a full program of training underway when there were three fire calls.

Training was set aside for a few hours while the real calls were dealt with.

One of the fires was in a kitchen at 439 Old St. Patrick. St. at about 9 a.m. Firefighters arriving at the scene found one person asleep on the premises and helped him to leave the structure. He was not injured.

Damage was estimated at $75,000.