PepperVine restaurant destroyed by fire in Mission Beach curse
Queensland’s Mission Beach has seen another of its local restaurants go up in flames as the list of businesses destroyed by fire grows.
During the early hours of Friday morning, an inferno ripped through PepperVine restaurant with five fire crews unable to save the property from destruction.
This is the latest restaurant to go up in flames in the region in recent years.
In December 2017, Millers Beach Bar and Grill was destroyed by fire just four days before Christmas.
Millers owners Michael Hannaford and Shane Battle described their loss as the “end of an era”.
“As you can imagine, we are in deep shock, and feeling sad not only for the business that we loved and have now lost, but also for our community, who have supported the various restaurants in this location over a period of 20-plus years, including ours for the past eight years,” they said at the time.
Five months earlier, in July 2017, a fire caused significant damage to the Italian Pizza Pasta House Restaurant and Cafe and Shanti Cafe next door.
At the time, Mission Beach Sergeant Troy Nowitzki said, “There has been significant damage but without insurance assessments we are not sure how extensive they are.
“We are still working to establish the cause of the fire and are conducting thorough and extensive investigations.
“We are taking witness statements and checking CCTV footage and using every available resource to determine what has happened.”
There were no indications of suspicious circumstances in any of the fires and no charges were ever laid.
Shanti Café reopened its doors but Italian Pizza Pasta House Restaurant and Café did not.
Irit Jackson, 14th March 2022
