As the manager of the Midnight Sun Coffee Roasters, Gerry Gardiner was notified early Wednesday morning that the foundation of the popular business was on fire.

It was difficult to stand there and watch it burn, she recalled in an interview this morning, remembering the hours she spent at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Black Street, watching firefighters struggle to stop the blaze.

Zola Dore, owner of the Midnight Sun and an ardent supporter of the arts, is in transit today, on her way to Whitehorse from California, where she was visiting family members.

'She is doing pretty darn good and is quite optimistic,' Gardiner said of Dore. 'You know, you have to make the best of it.

'I think I was far more affected because I watched it burn down.'

As the fire is believed to have started very early Wednesday morning in the south end of the building, where The Nest second-hand furniture store was located, it was quite some time before the the coffee shop was consumed, she recalled.

At one point, a firefighter went to take off the front door to the shop, so firefighters could get their hoses pointed against the back wall separating the Midnight Sun and The Nest.

Gardiner said she must have been in something like shock, as she ran up and offered the firefighter the keys, though he indicated they weren't necessary.

They had to take the door out, she said.

'It got in the roof, and I don't think there was any way to stop that.'

Fire chief Clive Sparks said Wednesday while at the smoldering scene that firefighting efforts were hampered by the age of the building, and the different renovations and additions to it over the 60-plus years at that location.

With walls added onto walls, he said, pockets are created where fire can hide and grow more intense.

Very soon after firefighters arrived on the scene at 1:25 a.m., four minutes after receiving the call, it was determined it was unsafe to fight the fire from inside The Nest, and there was no evidence or any reason to believe anybody was inside, he said.

Compounding the problems was the single, long roof, with no break between The Nest and the coffee shop, he said.

The cause of the fire remains unknown today. So does the value of the loss, though Sparks estimated it yesterday at several hundred thousand dollars. The building and both businesses are insured.

Gardiner said response to the Midnight Sun's loss was swift and overwhelming. People were calling yesterday and this morning to offer donations to help purchase a new coffee roaster, with offers of floor space to house a new device.

'People are amazing,' the manager said. 'That is the one thing I can say about this time.'

Gardiner said she's not sure what Dore has in mind for the immediate future. They have, however, already arranged with a coffee roaster in Vancouver that produces a similar product to supply the Zola Dore Cafe on Main Street, and the shop at the Canada Games Centre.

Those who buy coffee wholesale from Midnight Sun will also be given the name of the Vancouver supplier. However, there is no question there are going to be some Midnight Sun customers who will have to go without for a time.

How long is not something Gardiner can answer.

'I am sure by the time I pick Zola up at the airport tomorrow, she will have it all figured out,' Gardiner said.

'Zola is incredibly resourceful, and the community is exceptionally giving and resourceful, and I do not think it will be very long before she is up and operating again.'

Dave Avoledo, co-owner of The Nest, said Tuesday it was too early to say what the future holds for the furniture business, though the blaze did put him out of a job.

Con Lattin, the owner of the building, also suggested it was too early to say whether he'll rebuild on the site.

The building, Lattin noted, was somewhat of a cornerstone in the city's manufacturing heritage, as the original structure was built in the early 1940s as a Pepsi-Cola plant, where they mixed and bottled the product.

His family purchased the building in 1956, and maintained the Northland Beverage business at the site until it moved to its current Copper Road premises in 1991. It also doubled in the 1960s as the Whitehorse Dairies.

The fire chief said this morning the investigation into the cause of the blaze is likely to start soon, once the investigating team has been formed and a course of action has been agreed to.

He noted that an insurance agent for one of the three parties arrived in Whitehorse last night on the late flight from the south.

The sprawling pile of charred, snow-blanketed rubble will have to be pulled apart and hauled away, but not before investigators agree on the approach, he said.

Sparks explained that the fire did not likely start on the main floor of the Midnight Sun Coffee Roasters, because there was no flame there when firefighters arrived at the scene.

Therefore, it probably won't be necessary to go through every square centimetre of rubble in the area to search for the cause, because the fire likely started somewhere else, he said.

On the other hand, Sparks added, as investigators close in on the suspect area where the fire most likely started, more care will be taken to look for clues.

As with other wintertime investigations of major fires over the last 14 years the Saan store, the two Trans North hangars, the Ice House the area in question may need to be closed in and heated to advance the search for the cause, he said.

Sparks said while the investigation will begin soon, possibly even today, it will be the investigating team that establishes the schedule, which may include securing the necessary permits for temporary street closures.

The Midnight Sun manager noted that in addition to the loss of the roaster and other equipment, also destroyed were several pieces of artwork from several different artists, including six or so large canvas pieces by a Skagway artist that were on display.

Dore, she said, is a supporter of the arts community, and provided the walls of the shop as a venue for local artists to display and sell their work.

Also lost was a huge collection of antique coffee pots, and a coffee grinder from the 1800s that was carried over the Chilkoot Trail.

Laurel Parry, manager of arts for the Yukon government, described Dore today as a significant promoter of the arts in the territory.

'Zola is an artist herself, and I think she understood the struggles they have when they want to express themselves and put their work in front of people,' she said.

Parry said the coffee shop was more than just a venue for display, it was a meeting place for artists from all walks of life visual to theatre and back to meet and talk about their ideas, in a public setting.

In some small communities, the arts community lives and operates in isolation, she said.

Dore, and other businesses in Whitehorse that provide similar support, have made it a point to make art and culture a living and breathing part of the community, Parry explained.

She said Dore is not the sort to offer space only to the blockbuster opening.

'She has a very deliberate approach to supporting art, at the creation and the production level.'

Parry said she received numerous phone calls and emails at work yesterday including artists and others who want to help.

But like others, she suspects the absence of the Midnight Sun coffee shop is merely temporary.