Fire Destroys Popular Baldwin County Restaurant

Sometimes the only thing you can do for heartache is hug.

“It's just a really close knit place, everybody works good together,” says server Karen Keith. “Everybody gets along together.” She has been a server here for 29 years. Keith says the amount of community support they've gotten is overwhelming.

“People that come into the lodge all the time on a regular basis, the support they're dishing out people are bringing out food and coffee,” says Keith. The fire started early Sunday morning. By the afternoon, people were rolling in like a funeral procession paying their respects.

“It's like a death, like a memorial service in the parking lot people coming through and looking where they've been so many years,” says co-owner Charlene Haber. She says she arrived at the site only to see her life up in smoke. While this damage looks bad, the owners vow to rebuild. It isn't the first time they've had to bounce back from disaster.

“Hurricane Ivan came through in September 2004 and the whole place was gutted and we rebuilt in seven months,” says Charlene. She says most of their staff survived that transition by finding odd jobs in the interim. The Wolf Bay Lodge has been in Charlene's family for more than 30 years. The more than 50 employees have to find a new routine right before Christmas

“I don't know what I'm going to do with myself,” says co-owner Alice Bretz. “I want to know how soon we can bulldozer her down and get ready to rebuild.” The owners say fire officials believe the blaze started somewhere in the attic. Pictures of the fire were provided by Tommy Patterson.