It was early this morning when Hopkins resident, Ella Carr, received a panicked phone call: her business place, Ella's Cool Spot was on fire. She rushed out of her house, and the sight that greeted her was devastating. Flames had engulfed the front part of the restaurant, too big to contain and too wild to extinguish.
After a heart wrenching two hours, the fire was finally put out and all that was left were the ashes.
It's a tragic ordeal for Carr, who had put her life's work into the establishment. And what's worse is that surveillance footage proved that this was an act of arson.
Courtney Menzies went south today and has this story.
Back in December 2021, actress Aimee Garcia - who stars in the hit TV show 'Lucifer' - dined at Ella's Cool Spot - among the most popular restaurants in Hopkins Village. It's a must when you're in the south, but this morning, at around 2:30 am, someone lit the establishment on fire.
The flames caught onto the thatch and in a matter of moments, the entire front portion of the restaurant went up in flames. The owner, Ella Carr's cousin was next door when it happened and he sprung into immediate action.
Voice of: Donovan Maximo, Cousin/Neighbor
"I got up and went to use the restroom about 2:30 but I notice like a big glare outside and that's not usual around the neighborhood so that's when I opened the window and I looked outside and I saw my cousin's business was on fire, like one of the thatch and that's when I rushed out of the house and I went upstairs to call my dad and my brothers and my cousins and the neighbors around and that when we tried to assist and try to put it out."
"What we did, we noticed Ella had some drums around that had some water so that's what we tried to used to try to out the fire but the more were trying to out the fire, the more the fire was blazing and that's because of the wind, the wind was so high that day."
"Since the fire was blazing that hard, what we tried to do, since we couldn't save here, we tried to save our home. So we left here and we turned back at home too. We tried everything, man."
But when the smoke cleared, the Cool Spot had burned down - with only the charred remains left behind, still smoldering.
Six years of Carr's blood and sweat, gone in two hours:
Ella Carr, Owner, Ella's Cool Spot
"I'm devastated with this whole situation right now because I work hard for my business and I started my restaurant from scratch to where it is right now, I have Ella's Cool Spot for 6 years, going to 7 years."
"The reason why everyone highly talk about Ella's is the food, the authentic food we have here, and then the drink, the ambiance. Ella is all about love, you know, and it hurt me to see my business just burnt down. All my hard work went down the drain."
"The reason why we suspected its an arson because the fire start from the Southside of the thatch and if it was electrical problem, it would have been from the kitchen area or the mini gift shop area and that's the reason why we suspected its an arson."
And this surveillance footage proves it - in the background, you can see something being lit on fire. Carr suspects the arsonists used this to ignite the thatch.
It's a worrisome event, but this isn't the end for Carr - in fact, she says it's just a new beginning, and she's getting the support from the close-knit Hopkins community.
Ella Carr, wner, Ella's Cool Spot
"The next step is to rebuild back. Drop down, pick up myself, brush it off, and start all over again. I have 12 employees along with myself, I have my son to take care of. I can't give up. I will just rebuild back."
"It hurts my entire staff and along with myself, the entire community as well, the whole country, and we just gonna start- just like how we started form scratch, well, we will start it over and a GoFundMe page is already out there so we getting support from the resorts, the local businesses, the community, village councils, everyone gonna come together and we gonna work together to build it back."
"I have a lot of love, I help out a lot of people, the community. So people see that I am an active person in the community, I help out fundraising for sick people, and also give back through Ella's Cool Spot and that's the reason people from all over are here to look out for me to build back."
"I'm a determined person and I 'm a strong woman and I will bounce back and my workers, they understand the situation right now and let's hope that it won't be for long and we open back soon."
And as the vice chairperson, she has the entire village council on her side:
Macario Augustine, Chairman, Hopkins Village
"We're already in talks to get community involved to try and help her to clear up the area and from there we're going to see what we're going to try and do to rebuild her business back."
The GoFundMe link to raise funds for the rebuilding of Ella's Cool Spot will be available on our Facebook page. Apart from that, Carr said she would appreciate assistance in the form of building materials or manual labor.
