A local community has rallied round to support the owners of a popular food hut that was gutted by fire at the weekend.
Three fire appliances were sent to LJs Beach Shack on Teignmouth’s back beach at around 11:15am on Sunday morning (January 12) following calls reporting a fire.
It is understood that the owner, Louis Walker, known as LJ, was preparing food after opening the catering hut at 11am when the fire broke out in one of the fryers.
Despite attempts to tackle the flames with fire extinguishers, the blaze quickly took hold and gutted the outlet.
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‘He is extremely lucky to be uninjured,’ his partner Amy Howse commented.
More than 50 people from the community along with family and friends headed down to the back beach in Teignmouth on Sunday afternoon after the blaze extinguished to help clear up the debris.
Supporters have also donated to two fundraiser to rebuild the business, and many more people have offered practical help to help the owners reopen.
‘We have been overwhelmed by the support, messages, phone calls etc,’ said Amy. ‘There have been hundreds of people supporting us and we truly cannot believe it. We have always done things for the community like donating prizes for raffles, advertising and supporting local mental health clubs etc but we never thought we would receive anywhere near the amount of support we have had. It is truly a blessing to have the support of the community in return,’ she added.
A Go Fund Me page (https://www.gofundme.com/f/rebuild-ljs-beach-hut) set up by Michael Smith from the Devon and Cornwall VW Transporters group, which was meeting in the Point Car Park behind the hut when the fire broke out, has already surpassed its £5000 target. Another Go Fund Me page (https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-rebuild-ljs-beach-shack-after-fire?) , set up by Amy’s family, is also more than halfway to its £1200 target.
‘None of the Go Fund Me pages were set up by us or expected,’ Amy said. ‘We do not expect anyone to help us financially but are extremely thankful.’
There has been some speculation over the business’s insurance status on social media, which Amy described as ‘completely rumours and hearsay’ adding that. ‘we do not wish to discuss our personal details with anyone’.
‘Small businesses everywhere locally have been struggling with the rise of costs and many haven’t been able to survive. At multiple times we truly thought we would not come back from this but members of the public expressed huge desire to help get us back up and running as soon as possible,’ Amy explained.
Once we rebuild we will be having a grand reopening celebration where we will return our thanks with free food and drinks. As well as paying the favour forward when we are able to.
We are utterly heartbroken but at the same time, beyond grateful for everyone’s support. We really don’t have the right words right now.