Aftermath of fire, photo taken 10/27/24 West Columbia, SC (WOLO)— Fire officials say on Saturday night, crews from West Columbia, Cayce, Irmo and City of Columbia, Lexington battled a blaze at the Maurice’s Distribution plant. West Columbia fire crews say Saturday night they responded to a fire at the Maurice’s Piggie Park distribution plant off Charleston Highway and Airport Boulevard. Multiple crews worked to get the fire under control. Sunday morning , the West Columbia Fire Department reported the scene was under control and the cause of the fire was being investigated. The Bessinger family, owners of Maurice’s Piggie Park, posted on Facebook, saying: “From the Piggie Park family – we are absolutely devastated to share that we suffered a horrible fire last night at our headquarters at Maurice’s Piggie Park, 1601 Charleston Hwy, West Columbia SC. The BBQ Pits, food preparation and processing plant facilities, and our offices are completely gone. It is heartbreaking to see these 69 years of hard work and generations of memories at this location burned to the ground. The pits have been burning here since 1992, and it breaks the heart of our family and loyal staff to see this tragedy hit us. Our BBQ Pits here are where all our meats and sides are prepared, and we have an unbelievable mountain to climb ahead of us. First of all, everybody is safe with no injuries, thank God. Also the iconic landmark BBQ sign is safe, and the firefighters were able to take down and give us the American flag still waving. The main restaurant across the parking lot is untouched also, thankful for that. Secondly, our family wants to extend a tremendously huge thank you to the 50 firefighters and first responders from all counties in the area that worked all through the night to contain the fire and get it under control. Also a big heartfelt thank you to Matt at Columbia Auto Recovery and Towing who happened to be driving by when the fire was beginning and saved almost all our delivery trucks and food trucks by pulling them across the street to safety. Our Charleston Hwy restaurant is closed today, but the other locations across the Midlands will be open today until food runs out. We plan for all our restaurants to be closed Monday until further notice. We will be taking it day by day as we work to reopen and rebuild. For anyone who knows our family, knows we won’t give up and will work endlessly to do what we need to do to continue the BBQ legacy and support our 150 employees and community we love dearly. Thank you from the bottoms of our hearts for the support of each of you in our community and really all across the country last night during the fire, and today and in the future ahead, and for the tradition of SC BBQ we hope to continue on for more generations to come!” Categories: Local News Tags: fire department, West Columbia