Late-night blaze claims popular Pass Christian bistro

Aug. 01--PASS CHRISTIAN -- An old-fashioned Coca-Cola vending machine now protrudes through the roof of what used to be the Old Cuevas Bistro after a late-night fire Wednesday destroyed the popular Pass Christian restaurant.

The blaze was reported about 11:30 p.m., Harrison County Fire Marshal Pat Sullivan said. By the time the first of 14 fire trucks and 25 firefighters had arrived, heavy smoke was billowing from the structure and fire had just started to break through.

"They made an aggressive attack on it, but it was pretty advanced and moving quickly through the building," said Sullivan, who moments before had been walking across the restaurant's roof, which was being partially held up by the dinner tables.

Once it was clear the restaurant was going to be a total loss, Sullivan said the firefighters switched to make sure the home of owner Cassandra Timmons didn't meet the same fate. That's about the time manager Joseph Schuman arrived. He hadn't been home an hour after closing the restaurant when he received a call that the restaurant was ablaze.

"Of course I rushed down here for that," he said. "... After about an hour I just knew. The only thing we were trying to do is save the house next door because there was no saving the restaurant."

No one was injured, and the fire was contained after about three hours, but Sullivan said crews stayed into the morning to extinguish spot fires that periodically popped up.

The smell of charred wood was still fresh in the air late Thursday morning as employees and passersby stopped to look at what remained of the Menge Avenue bistro, which is no stranger to tragedy.

Just years after originally opening in 1851, the structure burned and had to be rebuilt. Less than a year after owner Timmons bought the restaurant, Hurricane Katrina put 12 feet of water in the structure. Without flood insurance -- Schuman said they were out of the flood zone at the time -- Old Cuevas Bistro was rebuilt in large part thanks to community volunteers and support.

"We kept bouncing back. (Just) resilient. You would think seven years after Katrina you're golden. Most restaurants don't make it a year," he said. "It has just been a lot of hard work and dedication to it."

Schuman said it was far too soon to know what Timmons will decide to do.

"I know there will be a lot of people disappointed -- I have reservations for the weekend," he said. "They'll understand, I'm sure, when they see the place. ... Right now, obviously, it's going to have to be scratched and start all over so I couldn't tell you if we're going there or not."

Asked if Timmons was lucky her home did not meet the same fate as her restaurant, Sullivan said it wasn't "luck" as much as skill by the firefighters. Crews from Harrison County Fire Services, Pass Christian, Cuevas, Lizana, West Harrison and the Air National Guard all worked seamlessly, he said.

"It was the skill of the firefighters and the aggressiveness of getting in there and protecting the property, having a cooperation between all of the agencies and fire departments that responded, having well-trained firefighters being on top of it," he said. "That's what kept that home from burning."

Sullivan said the investigation into the cause of the fire could take days.

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