Grant
Administrator
Restaurant, tradition and memories up in smoke.
an ABC Action News report 06/22/06
LAKELAND - A restaurant fire in Lakeland forced authorities to close down a portion of New Tampa highway and sent 50 years of history up in smoke.
Fire broke out about 8 am Thursday morning in the grill area of Farmer Jones' Red Barn.
We're told employees fire the grill up about 7:30 am to get it ready for that day's business, and that's where firefighters say something went wrong.
Kitchen manager Wayne Albright was among the employees that stared in disbelief as the memories and his job burned.
Albright says, "It's like a tinderbox, it just went up. We got here and I saw what I see now."
And what he saw was a mess of burned objects, fire houses and emotions.
Maintenance manager Gayron Hamilton says he smelled smoke and tried to get inside to get the fire extinguisher, but the fire stopped him.
Trying to get help he says, "So I came all the way around to the front and made the phone call. The lady, the dispatcher told me to just get out of there, so there was just nothing I could do, the flames were too hot."
Co-owner Cindy Keeble says, "It was just frightening. You could see the tears roll down my children's faces, because they knew that's where mommy worked since I was thirteen. So, it's a tough blow."
Keeble tells us the restaurant had such a strong family tradition, that they will indeed rebuild.
an ABC Action News report 06/22/06
LAKELAND - A restaurant fire in Lakeland forced authorities to close down a portion of New Tampa highway and sent 50 years of history up in smoke.
Fire broke out about 8 am Thursday morning in the grill area of Farmer Jones' Red Barn.
We're told employees fire the grill up about 7:30 am to get it ready for that day's business, and that's where firefighters say something went wrong.
Kitchen manager Wayne Albright was among the employees that stared in disbelief as the memories and his job burned.
Albright says, "It's like a tinderbox, it just went up. We got here and I saw what I see now."
And what he saw was a mess of burned objects, fire houses and emotions.
Maintenance manager Gayron Hamilton says he smelled smoke and tried to get inside to get the fire extinguisher, but the fire stopped him.
Trying to get help he says, "So I came all the way around to the front and made the phone call. The lady, the dispatcher told me to just get out of there, so there was just nothing I could do, the flames were too hot."
Co-owner Cindy Keeble says, "It was just frightening. You could see the tears roll down my children's faces, because they knew that's where mommy worked since I was thirteen. So, it's a tough blow."
Keeble tells us the restaurant had such a strong family tradition, that they will indeed rebuild.