Bagel shop to rise again from the ashes

[attach]6711[/attach]Just after Motti Sorek arrived home on Jan. 27 he received a call that the bakery he’d owned for 30 years — Haymishe Bagel Shop — was on fire.

The four-alarm blaze destroyed the shop at 3031 Bathurst St.

“I’m really devastated,” Sorek said. “What do you think about a person who goes to work for 30 years and suddenly it’s not there?”

When he found out about the fire, he jumped in his car and raced back.

According to a post on Twitter by Toronto Fire, the first floor of the bagel shop collapsed.

“Heavy black smoke getting worse from front door — windows starting to break,” reads one of their tweets.

When Sorek arrived at the scene, he says he was deeply saddened.

“Your life’s work is going up in flames and it’s not a pleasant sight to see,” he said.

Sorek has been back to visit the site every day since the blaze.

Since the fire, Sorek has received an outpouring of community support. He said he didn’t know his phone could ring so many times in a single day.

“Our customers are calling and trying to cheer us up,” he said. “They’re unreal … the moral support they’re giving us.”

The community also took to Twitter to express their condolences.

Kiss 92.5 radio station producer, Maurie Sherman, tweeted “Tragic news about the fire at Haymishe Bagel Shop — shop from my youth burns down.”

Sorek says he plans to reopen, and make his shop better than before and is working with his insurance company to speed up the process.

“I’m looking to the future with uncertainty,” he says. “Time will tell. Time is good for [a situation] like this.”