WHEELING, W.Va. — A local restaurant favorite, Avenue Eats, unexpectedly caught fire early Sunday morning (Nov. 1, 2020) causing devastating losses.

The Wheeling Fire Department received an emergency call around 5:00a.m. Sunday morning. Firefighters arrived at the corner of Washington Avenue and Valley-View Avenue to find the structure ablaze.

The Wheeling Fire Department released a statement regarding this tragedy: “When firefighters arrived on scene, there was heavy fire coming from the rear of the structure and the roof area. The building housed the neighborhood eatery ‘Avenue Eats’ and residential apartments. No one was hurt and the building is a complete loss.”

It appears that the fire started in the rear of the building. At this time, The Wheeling Fire Department does not know the cause of the fire, but is investigating it further.

Avenue Eats released a statement on their Facebook page saying “We are scared for our future, worried for our staff and while we want to say, we’ll be ‘okay’, it honestly doesn’t feel like that right now.”

Locals of the Ohio Valley area have most likely heard of or have been to Avenue Eats. The hamburger restaurant has been a local eatery for years, but has also attracted attention from outside of the Ohio Valley. Google reviews from travelers can be found on Google. The restaurant has a 4.7 star rating.

The community has had an unbelievable response to the loss. Community members have organized GoFundMe pages to support the restaurant and the girls living above it who lost everything in the fire. Over $17,000 in donations have been made to aid the restaurant, as well as over $10,000 to support the roommates Sierra and Haley. Thankfully, both tenants were not in the apartment building when it caught fire.

With the suffering tragedy, it is unlikely to determine the owner’s next steps. Locals can only hope that Avenue Eats will return back to business in the future.