BARNESVILLE, Ga. — Business owners are trying to salvage what they can after a massive fire destroyed several buildings in downtown Barnesville.
Channel 2’s Tom Regan was in the area on Wednesday where neighbors were pulling together to help the family-owned businesses that were destroyed and the others that were damaged.
“I feel like I lost a child,” restaurant owner Delaina Gresham said.
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Gresham said that her recovery following a major surgery inspired her to take a leap of faith and open Mama D’s Food and Fun.
“I was going to put in an area for children. I was going to have something to hand down to my children’s children’s children,” she told Regan.
But on Monday night, a massive fire destroyed her restaurant and the florist business next door.
“The next day, I came over here, looked at it. I had to go back home. I’m like, ‘What do I do now?’” she said.
The fire damaged three other businesses, including home decor store Everything Beautiful.
“The calls started coming in from family and friends that downtown was on fire, get to your store,” Everything Beautiful owner Jenna Jackson said. “It was a shock for sure.”
She said smoke and soot cover the inside of her store and all of her merchandise will have to be thrown out.
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“These businesses have been here, Market Street has been here since the 1800s, so yeah, it’s devastating for sure,” Jackson’s mother, Tammy Pair, said.
Jackson said she would do whatever she has to in order to get her shop opened back up as quickly as possible.
Gresham says she will also clear out and rebuild.
Several neighboring businesses have vowed to raise money to help the business owners affected by the fire.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
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