Lifelong member Brent Donaldson said he was shocked when he saw the Victoria Motorcycle Club’s clubhouse “shack” burned to the ground.
Donaldson said he got a call from the Metchosin fire chief telling him she had bad news. A few members of the club had lit the wood stove in the shack on Dec. 19, so they could be warm when they returned from their ride. But the fire spread to the building, engulfing it in flames and leaving essentially nothing by the time the bikers returned.
“We have 172 acres so they were out in the back country,” said Donaldson. “They came down the hill to have a sandwich around noon and all there was left was the charred remains of the clubhouse. It was a shock for them.”
Nobody was hurt and the fire was deemed an accident.
The shack was a wooden structure with benches and a stove inside, originally built around 1968, four years after the club was established on a large tract of wooded property off Happy Valley Road. While the structure was relatively modest, some additions had been made over the years.
“It was very disappointing,” Donaldson said. “It’s kind of a focal point for the motorcycle club.”
The snowy weather has delayed cleanup work, with plans already in place for replacing the lost building. Donaldson said members of the club had reached out to the district to get building permits and the hope is to have a new structure by the springtime.
“We have a lot of members, with a lot of skills, so we’re hoping that the carpenters will step up and will build something similar to what was there or maybe a little bit bigger.”
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