A fire early Thursday morning in Cedar Key caused damage to four businesses on the small Gulf Coast town’s famous street.
The fire broke out around 5 a.m. at Duncan’s on the Gulf and The Rusty Hook Bait Shop and subsequently caused catastrophic damage to Steamers and Island Trading Post.
According to Jordan Keeton, owner of 29 North on Dock Street, about 50 to 60 jobs were lost in the fire. Keeton said Steamers was one of the larger restaurants on the island and the loss hurts greatly.
The firefighters did what they could, he said.
“They sprayed it with water for 10 to 12 hours,” Keeton said.
The fire occurred a month before the annual Cedar Key Seafood Festival, which attracts around 20,000 tourists to Dock Street, making it one of the biggest weekends for local businesses.
Mussel farmer Michael Presley Bobbitt was returning from his mussel farm with 250,000 mussels on his boat when he was stopped by Jamie McCain from the fire department.
“We were able to get some hoses on my clam boat and fight the fire from the other side while the firefighters fought it on this (land) side,” Bobbitt said.
Bobbitt said after the fire reached the gallons of frying oil at Steamers, there was a race to save the street from the flames.
“Without them (the firefighters), there would be no Dock Street, and it’s hard to imagine Cedar Key without Dock Street,” Bobbit said. “We’re doing what we always do here in Cedar Key: Everyone is going to come and pitch in and see what they can do to help.”
This is the second town in Levy County where a fire has destroyed part of the local economy in the past year; in Williston, two restaurants burned down in the past ten months.
