BREEZEWOOD, Pa. (WJAC) — 6 News is still learning more about the fire that engulfed a Hardee's restaurant in Bedford County on Saturday. We spoke with the Breezewood Hardee's general manager and some customers about how it happened.
Not much remains of the Hardee's but a smoldering skeleton and debris — with the foam to put out the fire still wet, as of 1pm Sunday. What will be a long cleanup has already begun, with one Hardee's employee sweeping away ashes and rubble.
MORE | Fire destroys Hardee's restaurant in Breezewood
Traveler Joe Willard ate there Saturday about an hour before it went up in flames.
"We were just passing through on our way to our relatives in Maryland and...we don't have Hardees back home, so we stopped here and, uh, lo and behold, on our way back today... it's obviously not there," he told 6 News on Sunday. "It's crazy."
A number of people drove to the Hardee's on Sunday, expecting to eat lunch there, only to find it burnt down.
To see it now in ruin, Willard said, "It's surreal. I— I just can't believe this. It's unreal. Unreal."
Asked by 6 News if it started off as a regular workday, the Breezewood Hardee's general manager, Jeffrey Morse, replied: "Well, it actually wasn't a regular workday."
"[The] state health inspector was here first thing yesterday morning. So, he came in, did his inspection, he left, and about an hour later, our char broiler, it flared up, and apparently went up through the duct work in the ceiling and caught the roof on fire. And from there, it just kept spreading."
From the time it started and until the roof was on fire, Morse told us it took "probably less than 15 minutes."
"They was feeding burgers into it. And there's normally a flame above a flame broiler. And it— it made a crackling sound and then it— it got big flames."
Breezewood Volunteer Fire Department Chief Toby Colledge said the building's owner told him the ventilation fan was running without the proper cover being in place.
Fortunately, Morse said everyone inside evacuated safely.
"As far as rebuilding" the restaurant, he mentioned, "we're not sure on that yet."
"It's like a 50-50 right now with the economy the way it is, with help the way it is. But the owners here have owned the property since the — around 2000, 2001 — and they keep their properties up, so...they're looking at it."
With no place to work now, employees will have to consider their options.
"The ones who can draw unemployment will be drawing unemployment," Morse explained. "The owners own the...hotel right here — Days Inn — and we're gonna see if some of them can fit in over there. Some of my students will be out of a job for a while, but I'm sure they can find another one, everyone's sure to help."
Ultimately, he said the inferno could've been a lot worse.
"We're so grateful for the fire departments. You don't know how many volunteers showed up yesterday, and without them that thing wouldn't be there, and the hotel could have went too."
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