37 Replies to “5-Alarm Melt”

  1. They have a big distribution centre just south of town of Highway 10, so they’ll have some stock in the short term.

  2. why didn’t the ice cream melt and put the fire out?
    LOL !!!
    ‘sparks from a welding torch’ etc etc.

  3. Well, I prefer Beyers myself.Just think.The local Dizzy May club must be rejoicing.One less eviiiiil capitalist CO2 spewing plant and hundreds of cows who are not being used for slave labour producing cream!

  7. The best ice cream ever sold commercially was “Death by Chocolate”, produced by “Turkey Hill” here in the US. The supermarket was almost always out of it, probably because store employees siphoned off the supply. Of course, Turkey Hill discontinued it, substituting a disgusting, candy-like concoction in its place. After writing a letter of complaint (to no avail), I am now on Turkey Hill’s mailing list and receive a free calendar every year. It’s not the same.

  8. The part that caught my eye was this one:
    “They filed outside the building … and waited in the parking lot across the street like they had countless times before.”
    “Bahhh, bahhh.”
    No mention anywhere of anyone making the slightest attempt to suppress the fire at the moment it started. (No mention of the welders having fire extinguishers ready-to-hand for just such a possibility. Duh.)
    Nope. Just stand around and wait for Nanny to make things better.
    Yes, I know the drill. “Evacuate quickly but do not run. Do not attempt to fight the fire yourself, etc, etc.” But there was a time when the drill was “Get the women and children out and all the men pitch in and help.”
    But then, that was 150 years ago …

  9. I can live without their ice-cream but am more than a little saddened that another example of independent capitalism has bitten the dust. Here’s hoping they re-build and continue their
    fine example of success.

  10. Gorman’s sawmill was saved from the Kelowna fires .
    [The mill was saved from the fires by its workers. The 15 to 20 employees who were on shift at the mill when the fire rolled towards it Saturday afternoon were joined by another 15 to 20 workers who showed up to help out.] Foresttalk.com
    Just saying.

  11. Mocha Almond Fudge 2L tub always sells out first around here. The quality seems to have dropped over the years. The coffee smell lacks the punch it once had and the nuts are sometimes stale or bitter . Still better than most other mass brands.
    Silverwood’s Cherry Jubilee Vanilla sold at Mac’s Milk years ago, now that was the real deal.

  12. It might not have been the best ice cream available, but at that price I never felt bad about eating a box in three sittings. Okay, a little sluggish and brain frizzed, but not guilty.
    They say they plan to begin at the same site, let’s hope so.

  14. Justthinkin,
    Beyers?….never heard of that…
    (have to clear that up before we square off in the (fork..spoon, Breyers…Chapman’s) standoff!
    Sgt Lejaune,
    I remember that Silverwood’s Cherry Jubilee as well! Want to join the fray?

  15. Chapman’s made some of the only ice cream on the market that was made on a specialized line without nuts or peanuts. This is a real shame on a lot of levels.

  17. Dang. Their ice cream sanwiches (with the oatmeal cookies) made me half the man I am today.
    That is to say, “tubby.”

  18. Chapmans and Bryers are pretty good. But I know this won’t be a popular comment but Presidents Choice and Our Compliments stuff pretty well blows them out of the water. The only people who could compete with them as far as quality goes would be the small companies doing organic ice cream. There’s a place near Hanover in Ontario that springs to mind. Can’t remember the name.

  19. Ron in Kelowna: but out West we’re kind of used to looking after ourselves. All that oil money travels East after all. Change we can believe in, will take a much bigger recession. Know what I’m sayin?

  21. I am sure glad I bought Ice Cream last night…a shortage of Ice Cream is indeed a scary thought!
    Could you imagine…I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for Ice Cream! .. and there is none..
    The Horror…
    On a more serious note I hope that the Company rebuilds and has 100 more years of bringing tasty freezer food to us.

  24. Yeah Doug the way I felt this AM, when the dogs jump started me…..I feel like it was 150 years ago.
    At a tender age like most kids the danger of fire was indoctrinated….
    The drill was if a barn catches fire—fugedaboutit—-but save the livestock….
    The is little danger of collapse until the roof collapses then get out and stay out….
    Forget about the pigs, silly buggers will just run back into a burning barn…release horses and getouthe way….
    THEN make and attempt to isolate the barn….I saw a guy, with a tractor, hitch a chain to a too-close outbuilding and pull it clear to make a fire break.
    These days rural fire guys have tankers that can self load from a nearby creek.
    Last barn fire, when the fire-chief was reminded of the swimming pool—his response was that it was their reserve—just in caser things got hairy. A fire pump can drain a big pool in minutes…..but drive 5-6 hoses at once.awesome…
    I recall many years past, responding to a fire with my unfit-for-the road tanker….a rurbanite complained to the attending Police Constable that the truck had no plates—-he asked her
    “if YOUR house was burning—would you really be concerned?”

  25. as kids we’d go to the barn and before the mixer in the cooler stirred up the milk use a dipper to take out a gallon of the ice cold top 3-4 inches of cream…then take that home and make ice cream…by hand.
    and only one flavour was to be had.

  26. No use crying over spilled milk…. I can’t believe that line hasn’t been used yet.
    I haven’t picked out a favorite ice cream here in Canada yet as the quality varies greatly and my belt prohibits a real quality sampling, however, as a small business I hope Chapman’s bounces back.
    btw, even if it is run by leftoid hippies, I enjoyed Ben & Jerry’s while in the states, especially when Fiesta had them on special at 2 for $5.

  27. Justthinkin:
    Spork locked ‘n loaded…you call out the paces!
    gord…FREE:
    Chapman’s is a po boy’s Baskin Robbins…BR favourites are World Class Chocolate & Pralines ‘n Cream.
    Texas Canuck:
    I suffer from Dunlops Disease…it sounds as if you’ve a mild case as well. I’ve been searching out good frozen yogurts…not a lot that compare though…
    (good to get away from the heavy content of posts this week and have a chuckle!)
    Cheers.

  28. Ron:
    sawmills are heavily equipped with firefighting equipment and the employees get regular training on it to fight fires within the millsite. Thevent you speak of just required them to train their efforts elsewhere.

  30. Garry said “Chapman’s is a po boy’s Baskin Robbins…BR favourites are World Class Chocolate & Pralines ‘n Cream.”
    BR does have some great ice cream. Hagan Daze(sp?) is probably the best “popular” ice cream around. Very good ingredients. You pay for it though.
    I have since turned my attention to gelatos in the small Italian businesses.
    As part of my old job we used to buy hundreds of ice creams on the market and have all day tastings of ice cream to compare quality. The professional tasters could distinguish where the vanilla bean was grown etc. One interesting test was to just melt ice cream and see how much liquid you got per weight. The cheap stuff has a lot of air in it so it doesn’t yield much.
    Most people I worked with were a tad overweight.

  31. This a great opportunity for my favorite – Kawartha Dairies – to grab market share. Their ice cream is exceptional for regular price product.
    Sad about Chapman’s.
    MM

  32. No one even tried to save the Butter Pecan?
    I’m crying…Chapmans Butter Pecan was melt in your mouth smooth.

  33. Gord at 2:17. I think that Chapman’s made the Presidents Choice products.
    Its not the best ice cream going, but it is good value for money. The best ice cream is at Berthillon’s, 31 Rue St Louis-en-L’ile, Paris. Costs a fortune, but well worth the air fare.

  34. in grade school we had a story about ranch kids hiking to the foothills to get ice to make ice cream. and something about taking salt. no one could explain wtf the salt was for.
    I had to wait until much later in life to figure it out. you put the ingredients in a bucket. you put that bucket in another bucket with the ice or snow in it.
    you add the salt to the larger bucket. the resulting salty water is well enough below 0 C to chill the ingredients of the ice cream which you are now mixing.
    took me years to figure it out, it was assumed by the author city kids were supposed to know the salt angle and the teacher was clueless.
    perhaps we should send a trailer of salt to Markdale. LOL !!! Chapman’s vanilla tastes like starchy foam insulation. blech.
    I once sent a letter to Breyers wondering why they dropped the ‘all natural’ from the ingredients. came the reply that even tap water could not be considered all natural because it is treated. plus a coupon for a bucket of their stuff.
    I gots a loooooong memory for all manner of yarns, stories, events, factoids and history.

  35. Re: discontinued “Death by Chocolate”, produced by “Turkey Hill” (RSP @ 11:19 a.m.)
    I have the same nostalgia about Haagen-Dazs’ Cappucino Commotion. The best of the five “Extraas”, dropped in 1997 for a couple of boring chocolate flavours — even though the brownie chocolate one was still going. Since then the Cookie Dough Dynamo has been the best, although I like Caramel Cone Explosion too.
    I also go to Baskin-Robbins … Chocolate Mousse Royale to name one, but lots of ’em.

  36. More people have lost their livelihoods due to catastrophic fires caused by hot work incidents than you’d believe. I’d bet Chapman’s either didn’t have or didn’t follow their hot work program, or a contractor didn’t follow it. A tragedy for all involved; I hope they rebuild. Ontario manufacturing doesn’t need more permanent job loss, regardless of the cause.
    “Bahhh, bahhh.”
    No mention anywhere of anyone making the slightest attempt to suppress the fire at the moment it started
    Posted by: Doug at September 6, 2009 11:21 AM
    Interesting take on the incident. The fact that “no mention” was made of anybody trying to fight the fire doesn’t mean it wasn’t attempted. Absence of proof isn’t “proof”. By the same token, it doesn’t mention whether or not flammable combustibles were involved, and that can get nasty; all the facts aren’t indicated.
    Ever tried to put out a serious fire, Doug? Apart from just thinking about it while blogging from your PC, of course. As this was a refrigerated food operation, I’d bet they used anhydrous ammonia as a refrigerant, as it’s a very effective chilling agent, and commonly used. It’s also extremely corrosive and hazardous to humans. If that was used by Chapman’s, then the standard – and safe – practice would be to E-STOP the NH3 compressors and liquid receiver valves, and get the h3ll out of Dodge. Insurance can replace buildings, equipment and inventory; dead and maimed people are harder to fix.
    Excellent armchair quarterbacking, though. Perhaps you should volunteer to assist in the post-mortem incident analysis.
    mhb23re
    at gmail dot calm

  37. minuteman said “Gord at 2:17. I think that Chapman’s made the Presidents Choice products. ”
    You might be right about that but it would be the Product Developers at Presidents Choice who came up with the recipe which Chapmans wouldn’t be allowed to use because of copywrites etc.
    A lot of people probably don’t realize that when you see a product on a shelf and the Private Label alternative beside it, that they are usually made by the same company.

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