Ordeal over burned home leaves man fuming

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

By: Bill Redekop

Posted: 08/11/2014 1:00 AM | Comments: | Last Modified: 9:57 AM | Updates

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Doug Bergman and the Beausejour landmark he was 90 per cent finished restoring before it burned down July 20. The house is a complete loss. BILL REDEKOP/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Aug 7,2014

BEAUSEJOUR -- Suggest to free-spirited Doug Bergman his life sounds like a Jimmy Buffet song, and it turns into a eureka moment. "I worship him! He's my hero."

But the song with Bergman's name on it took on a sadder cast recently -- a pinch of regret, a dash of self-reflection and a heaping helping of Margaritaville.

On July 20, after returning from a wedding, Bergman discovered his house on fire. It's a 110-year-old heritage house he had been restoring for 20 years -- the restoration was 90 per cent complete. It was a gorgeous abode with a sort of curving mansard roof and two gables jutting out from each of three sides except for in back. It also had a widow's walk on the roof. A widow's walk was more common in seaports where supposedly a wife would watch for an incoming ship with her husband aboard. If the ship didn't come in, she knew she was a widow.

Bergman thinks his heritage home may have been a "kit house," one of those house designs you bought out of the Eaton's catalogue a century ago. People driving by would often stop and ask to peek inside the local landmark.

Bergman's trouble is he can't recollect much of what happened the night of the fire. He admits he came home hammered from the wedding reception. There's nothing illegal about being drunk -- a cousin drove him home. The fire was just smouldering in back of the house, otherwise his cousin would have seen the fire and helped him.

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Ordeal over burned home leaves man fuming