Leigh McFarlane was once again marvelling at the irony of the amount of laundry she generates while making soap, on the evening of Nov. 22.

Despite the pandemic, The Soap Company of Nova Scotia had had a good two years.

Her product lines of artisanal soaps, cleaning and skin care products for super sensitive skin could be bought in Sobeys stores across Atlantic Canada, they were about to enter five Superstores, and the online business had taken off.

Despite some setbacks, it was all going according to McFarlane’s plan of expanding the company to employ 10 people with good jobs in her ancestral home of Cherry Hill, Guysborough County, as she walked toward the laundry room to do another load.

Then she smelled smoke.

Opening the washing machine of the stacked unit, she saw a glow coming from inside.

She unplugged the machines and tried to put the fire out.

It grew, smoke filled the room and billowed out into the house.

She fell.

She got out in time to watch the house that had been the centre of all her dreams and plans since leaving a good federal civil service job in Prince Edward Island in 2013 and moving home.

“Long story short, it all burned down,” said McFarlane.

“The firefighters that came were just amazing, they were able to save the barn and prevent a forest fire. But between the wind off the water and the propane tanks it seemed the house didn’t stand a chance.”

On Tuesday, McFarlane was in the former home of the Sherbrooke Volunteer Fire Department making soap.

“Everything’s gone and that’s weirdly exciting,” said McFarlane.

It was her mother, with whom she’s been living since the fire, that reminded McFarlane of the fire that swept through Cherry Hill over a century ago while their great-great-grandfather was away captaining a ship on the Labrador.

And how their great-great-grandmother dragged the children down to the bay and put them in the water away from the flames, then rushed back to try and save her husband’s captain’s papers.

It was the next day after everything had burned for miles that they found her, alive down in the well where she’d hidden from the maelstrom.

It was a setback, but not an end for the McFarlanes of Cherry Hill.

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“The firefighters that came were just amazing, they were able to save the barn and prevent a forest fire. But between the wind off the water and the propane tanks it seemed the house didn’t stand a chance.”

- Leigh McFarlane

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“One of the best things that happened was all my communication devices burned, in the time that followed I would have been focused on communicating outward,” said McFarlane.

Instead, she did a lot of thinking and talking with her mom, her adult children, friends and fellow entrepreneurs.

Another blessing was that the morning of the fire she’d taken a car load of inventory into Sherbrooke for their annual Old Fashioned Christmas events and sale.

“There I was talking to so many people and it just felt the community was wrapping us up in this great big hug, it was hugely humbling,” said McFarlane.

“There are no words for how much love I felt for us and the company. It was energizing.”

The inventory and equipment burned along with the plan as it existed, but the company and the drive remained.

A call to customers on her social media feeds offering a 10 per cent gift of additional product for orders over $97 if they would wait for delivery until January was well received and brought in some operating capital.

She found equipment, a new home in the former fire hall and got to work.

She lost the Christmas season of production and knows when she hits the road visiting retailers around Atlantic Canada next week there will be shelves to fill.

Right now she’s forced to think short term – making product and filling orders, and getting the company running to the point she can bring back employees and start expanding.

That goal of creating 10 jobs by 2023 still exists.

The lifelong planner can’t help but plan.

“The last couple of years I’ve learned a lot about improving processes and when you think about it there is an opportunity to reimagine (the company),” said McFarlane.

“It’s like the ‘what’ hasn’t changed, it’s just the ‘how’ that has changed.”

Source (opens in new window): https://www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada/news/soap-company-of-nova-scotia-rising-from-the-ashes-after-devastating-fire-100676838/