Two buildings are being called a complete loss after a fire in Bevier, a small town just west of Macon. Bevier Mayor, Bill Cosby, says the fire near the town’s center was reported just after midnight Thursday morning. He says the fire destroyed both the Pear Tree restaurant and the Black Diamond Association – a town history museum.
“Being a small community, just a little over 700 people, to lose two buildings like that is just a tremendous hit to the community. The Pear Tree had a tremendous following. People come from Kansas City, St. Louis, you know, all over to eat at the Pear Tree,” Cosby said.
Cosby says he’s concerned about the jobs that might be lost, because the restaurant created tourism in the area, including nearby Macon. He told the owners the city would help however possible.
“Currently I don’t know what their plans are, but we just wanted to make sure they knew that anything the city could do we would do. You know, there’s a lot of jobs at stake. It’s just a big part of the community,” Cosby said.
He says the museum also lost many of the town’s important historical artifacts that can’t be replaced, but says some items were able to be saved before the fire took over.
“They did get some items out and they are still trying to get a count of everything that was saved. It was put in a couple of different places and at this point we really don’t know how much was saved, we know there was a lot lost.”
He says the town’s volunteer firefighters were still on scene Thursday afternoon, and were assisted by the Callao and Macon Rural Fire Departments.
“People are still in shock. The fire department still is putting water on the scene. They’ve still got hot spots within the building. The fire marshal is on scene and actually they’re waiting to get a contractor in so they can pull the walls of the building down so they don’t collapse and hurt somebody. That’s the main thing, I mean no one was injured last night. We’re very thankful for that. The fire departments, they did a wonderful job,” Cosby said.
