ST. JOHN’S – Steve Ryan watched his town’s main source of employment burn to the ground on Tuesday night during a powerful storm that pounded the coasts of eastern Newfoundland.

The mayor of St. Mary’s, N.L., says waves slammed onto shore, soaking the firefighters trying to douse the flames from the burning fish plant in hurricane-force winds.

He says there was nothing they or anybody else could do to save the facility, which provided good jobs for about 300 people in the St. Mary’s Bay region of Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula.

Ryan’s voice broke as he described the years of work he put in to get the plant reopened in 2022 after it sat empty for about seven years.

The storm set in Tuesday afternoon, bringing winds exceeding 150 kilometres an hour to some areas, and surging ocean water

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