CONWAY, Ark. — The owners of the beloved Patticakes Bakery in Conway have been left searching for answers after a fire destroyed one of their buildings overnight.
It also did some damage to a neighboring business.
Crews battled the fire on Monday night and again on Tuesday afternoon when flames started back up.
The owner said she's devastated this happened and has asked for prayers for her 29 team members which she calls family.
"To see this kind of thing happen is pretty difficult. And I was able to be with them last night, while this was happening. So I kind of really felt bad for them to have to watch," said Palmer Music Co. Owner, Preston Palmer.
Since his business is just next door to Patticakes, Palmer has been dealing with some damage of his own.
"We will not be open. We have a lot of water damage. And so yeah, we're just trying to assess the damage today. And yeah, we'll probably be replacing some inventory," Palmer explained.
When you walk into his business, you can smell the smoke.
Now for the rest of the week, they're moving to virtual lessons instead of in-person.
"It could have been so much worse. No, no one was hurt. No one was here. Certainly could have been worse for us. But we're really thinking a lot about Patti and David (Stobaugh) and the community is already wrapping their arms around the Stobaughs and myself, just like they always do," he said.
Just after 6:15 on Monday night, the Conway Fire Department responded to Patticakes to put out the flames.
In a Facebook post from the bakery, they said they baked almost everything at the downtown location and it housed all of their large equipment, mixers, and ovens. Both the Front Street location and Robinson Avenue locations are closed until further notice.
"There's a lot of years tied up into that building. And so to watch it, just go down like it did. It was not easy. So, but they're strong, and they'll, they'll, they'll make their way," Palmer added.
This isn't the first time the Stobaugh's have had to deal with something like this.
Their other family restaurant, Stoby's, also caught fire back in 2016, but just like last time, the community has already been pulling together to support them.
In fact, Gibson's Cat Cafe is giving 10 percent of Wednesday's sales to help with their recovery.