A4

By MICHAEL STAPLES
staples.michael@dailygleaner.com

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Joe Blades may be down, but he's not out.

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STEPHEN MACGILLIVRAY PHOTO

Sorting through his life: Author, artist and publisher Joe Blades looks through the items that were removed from his apartment on York Street after it was heavily damaged by fire last week. All the items are being stored in a warehouse and he has to go through everything to see what’s salvageable

The founder of Fredericton's Broken Jaw Press Inc. was one of more than 20 people left homeless last week by a devastating apartment building fire on York Street.

The blaze not only robbed Blades of a place to stay, but effectively shut down his business, at least temporarily, which he ran out of his former home.

Broken Jaw Press publishes poetry, fiction and literary non-fiction by new and award-winning authors.

Blades said that part of the business is pretty well suspended at this time.

"I intend for it to be able to keep going," Blades said Wednesday.

"It's just, unfortunately, going to be slower this year than I have planned. I had been looking forward to doing a more active year than last. That may still happen, I don't know."

Blades said he's waiting on his insurance company and has been looking at new locations to live and work.

Investigators have determined that the fire was started accidentally.

"I have no computers, no scanners. I don't even have the access to the files," Blades said. "I am going to try to see if a suitable expert can ghost material from the old (computer) hard drive."

Blades said all of his electronics were condemned by the Department of Public Safety after its inspection of the fire scene.

He had been at the York Street location for close to 11 years.

"I have quite a few commitments for books I was planning to either re-issue or publish for the first time this year - mostly for the fall," he said.

"Right now, that's all kind of getting slowed down and it's also affecting my ability to manage other aspects of the business, like applying for grants and any of the other administrative-type work of that sort."

As far as positives are concerned, Blades said he was able to salvage much of his collection of books, which numbered in the thousands.

"We've moved most of my library, which comes out of those same 30 years of being involved in the writing community of this country," he said.

"Most of them were removed with smoke damage. Some had water damage and we will try to dry them out. We just have to hope that they can be cleaned when I get a new space."

Blades said none of the art he had on the walls was damaged.

"It's not bad considering what other people in the building went through, as a lot of people were burned out completely or flooded. They have lost not just their computers and equipment but everything."

For people looking to get in contact with Broken Jaw Press, the postal addresses and email are still operational, as is the phone number, which now just has voice mail. The website is also still functional.

"I think it could be much worse if I was in one of those units where people just sort of looked at their stuff, shook their heads and walked away," Blades said.

"Having insurance is definitely a smart move, because I think about half of the people in that building didn't have insurance."