Dearman’s soda shop could be closed for about one month after this morning’s fire, but that timeline depends on several factors.
Dearman’s General Manager Casey Evans says the restaurant is waiting on insurance adjustors to review the damage and make estimates. Professional cleaning crews have been at the 7633 Jefferson Highway business since early this morning, trying to clear out all the soot and water left over from the fire and firefighters’ efforts to extinguish it.
Evans describes the damage as “pretty significant” and says he is not sure how long it will take to clean up.
“You can definitely see the smoke damage throughout,” Evans says.
He says the restaurant’s owners may use the time to fix some issues and make a few upgrades, but he thinks they will return the building and its décor to its same look before the fire—though they have not thought that far ahead and are just worried about cleaning up the damage right now.
Firefighters responded to a call at 1:55 a.m. and arrived at Dearman’s to find a fire in the back, near the storage area. It took firefighters more than an hour to get the fire under control, but they kept it from spreading to the front of the restaurant. The restaurant suffered about $500,000 in fire, smoke and heat damage, and some surrounding businesses suffered smoke damage, Baton Rouge Fire Department spokesman Curt Monte said this morning.
Evans worked at Dearman’s in 2005, when the restaurant had to close because of damage from a fire in a neighboring suite. He says David Van Gelder, who bought the business from Billy Wright after that fire, kept the employees on payroll and took care of them. He envisions a similar scenario this time.
“We’re going to take care of the employees,” Evans says.
Meanwhile, Baton Rouge fire investigators are leaning toward classifying this morning’s fire at Dearman’s soda shop on Jefferson Highway as electrical, says Baton Rouge Fire Department spokesman Curt Monte.
Arson has been ruled out, and investigators need to rule out a few more possibilities before going with electrical as a definite cause, Monte says.
—Ryan Broussard
