Massive fire devastates Maurice’s Piggy Park Barbeque, 200 jobs at risk

West Columbia, S.C. (WACH) — A massive fire at Maurice’s Piggy Park Barbeque has left the regional staple in disrepair, leaving 200 employees with nowhere to work. Officials said the fire started around 9:30 p.m. Saturday and are still investigating what caused the blaze.

As the investigation into what happened continues, the franchise’s CEO and President, Lloyd Bessinger, expressed how difficult the path forward is.”It’s kind of overwhelming when you have something like this and completely have to shut down, and we’ve been open almost 70 years,” said Bessinger. It’s quite a daunting task to go through when you lose your main facility.”

The abrupt closing of all the locations has happy customers in shock. “The food has been wonderful it’s been good, I’ve never really had anything bad coming out of here,” said one loyal customer. It’s been an institution for a lot of people out here.”

Though the task of finding a new facility may be hard and people will be out of work, Bessinger said they are hoping to have all their locations opened by this weekend.