Worthington businesses begin cleanup after devastating fire overnight
WORTHINGTON, Ohio (WCMH) — An overnight fire in Worthington destroyed at least one business and damaged several others.
A florist, restaurant, pizza place, and personal training business are closed because of the blaze.
“You can see the sky through my ceiling in the office so it's pretty bad," said Shem Fokt, owner of EMS Fitness Body.
The flames started in Rodos Greek Taverna and spread. The Worthington Fire Department arrived at the scene around 11:45 p.m. Thursday. Fokt also found out overnight about what was going on. His personal training business is just a couple of doors down from Rodos.
“When you put a lot of effort and work and to see it gone in a few moments is just very shocking and pretty depressing after all so it's like you have to restart but I guess that's what we all have to do," Fokt said.
Fire crews stayed at the scene all morning. Rodos just moved into that location off route 161 in the Linworth area about two years ago.
“It’s devastating, there’s really no words," Dan Varga said.
Varga owns a butcher shop in the same building. The fire was put out before getting to that side but there was a fire at Varga's a couple of years ago.
“I know what they’re going through. This is even worse because there’s nothing left in that building and it’s going to take a while. My heart goes out to them for sure," he said.
Varga also said he's planning ways to help.
"We’re all local small business owners and we all care about what we do and we’re here every day in our shops running them to the best of our ability and it's our livelihood, it's our bread and butter. So to see this happen to somebody from our situation, it sucks, I'm going to do whatever I can to help them out," he said.
The businesses are trying to figure out what comes next.
“I feel sorry for everyone who was involved and I'm just, we are lucky nobody was there, nobody was hurt and that's what's most important. I think we can come up from this with strength and build something better and bigger so that's what I hope for," Fokt said.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
