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By JEANNE RICHARDSON
Courier Staff Writer

"We're just devastated," Grenola Bar and Grill owner Lyle Watson said as he shook his head. "That was our livelihood."

He was gazing at the burned pile of rubble and old bricks that used to be his restaurant on the corner of Main and Maple in the old Grenola Bank building.

The fire that took the business started in the early morning hours of Thursday, and the fire department was called about 3:45 a.m. According to Grenola acting fire chief, Jim Carmichael, the 911 call came into Elk County and the Burden, Cambridge, Howard and Moline fire departments all assisted.

Elk County Sheriff Doug Hanks said he could see the light from the blaze as he rushed over from Howard.

"There were at least 15 fire trucks here at one time," said Hanks. "Even the Moline fire department brought their ladder truck. The flames were really high."

"(The fire chief) came and woke me up about 4 a.m.," said Watson. "I just live at the end of this street. By the time I got here, the roof was already gone."

Watson and his wife, Debbie, had opened the restaurant on July 28 of this year after buying the building off eBay and deciding to make it into a restaurant. They sold their place in Missouri, said Watson, and bought a house in Grenola, and had decided they would settle there. They had done a lot of remodeling to the building, making it a welcoming, comfortable place for people from miles around to go and eat, enjoy the atmosphere and make new friends.

"We had folks coming from Wichita and all around to eat," said Lyle.

John Harrison, of the Kansas Fire Marshal's office, was still going through the remains Thursday afternoon. "We probably won't ever know the cause of the fire," said Harrison. "The damage is too extensive to tell. It just took everything."

Watson said that the fire got so hot that even the appliances were melted.

The old bank vault that he had turned into an office was still standing, he said, but everything inside it had melted.

They had found the welcome sign that was on the doorway, intact but a little blackened. "We hope to save what we can to use as memories in the new place," said Watson, pointing out the round bricks used to make the round pillars on either side of the doorway.

Watson was still stunned by the tragedy of the fire. "My wife won't even come out of the house to see it, she's so devastated," said Watson. "After all the work we did on the building ... it's really terrible."

But the Watsons love the town of Grenola and all the people they've met since they've been there.

"We're going to rebuild," said Watson. "It probably won't have the atmosphere the old bank building had, but we'll have a place for people to eat."