Pickle Barrel damaged in fire this past weekend

A Milledgeville restaurant was damaged by fire over the weekend. The Pickle Barrel Cafe, located at 1880 N. Columbia St., caught fire Saturday morning.

“There isn’t a lot of information about the fire yet, but the fire department thinks that it was probably an electrical fire,” employee Heather Brown said.

Brown is a waitress at the restaurant and was one of the only employees at the scene this past Saturday morning around 8 a.m. She said the fire came as a big shock to her and it was not the way she expected to begin her work day.

“Pretty much the whole interior of the restaurant was damaged so it could take a few months before everything is repaired,” Brown said.

Brown and for her fellow employees do not know how the fire’s damage will affect the business. The eatery is known for its deep-fried pickles and savory sandwiches.

“We do not know how much the damages are going to cost and it is very nerve racking,”Brown said.

Pickle Barrel manager Ethel Harris has had a busy time this week, as she has received many phone calls since Saturday and has also been dealing with insurance matters.

“I just thank God that no one was in the restaurant when the fire started and that no one got hurt,” Harris said.

Harris has worked at The Pickle Barrel Cafe for five years and is in charge of about 25 staff members.

Milledgeville Fire Department Lt. Greg Hood said that the insurance investigators should have all of the data on the fire collected by sometime next week.

“The idea that it was an electrical fire hasn’t been ruled out yet, but there is also a possibility that there was a cigarette in a trash can,” Hood said.

He added that he hopes the business will be able to return to normal soon.

“Being around there I could see that the owners were anxious to get things cleaned up so they can get back into the swing of things,” he said. “I go there a lot myself and I hope that they’ll get everything back up and running soon.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 23 2009. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry