Richmond Hill Popeyes damaged in early morning fire, multiple agencies respond

Richmond Hill, Ga. (WTOC) - Three businesses in Richmond Hill will be closed for the time being an early morning fire forcing them to shut their doors.

Emergency crews were battling a blaze all morning here at the Popeyes, Fuddruckers, and TA Travel Center off of I-95 and Coastal Highway. Richmond Hill Fire was the responding agency, and they say as soon as soon as they got on scene, they knew they were going to have to call in some other agencies for help.

“We made entry through the front door and immediately called for mutual aid from Savannah, Chatham, and Liberty County, which they all showed up on scene to help out. That was a lot of help for us,” Richmond Hill Captain Roland Evans said.

The fire was reported around 2:45 a.m. on Sunday.

Evans says that they put out the fire on the inside of Popeyes but that was only half the battle. There were also parts of the roof burning- a stubborn fire to put out.

The fire crew stayed on scene for a couple hours after the initial blaze just to make sure everything was safe.

“Sometimes you end up with hot spots in the roof, and we want to make sure everything’s completely out. We don’t want any rekindles. We don’t like coming back to things like this.”

Bryan County EMS says that one person at the scene was treated for injuries though they couldn’t say what the injury was or whether or not the person was in one of the buildings.

No firefighters were hurt while battling the blaze. They were able to contain the damage, with the TA making away with just minor smoke damage.

The same can’t be said for Popeyes and Fuddruckers.

“We’ve got roof damage, we’ve got water damage, and quite a bit of fire and smoke damage in the back of the building, so I would imagine it’s gonna take them a good while before they can get reopened.”

There’s no word yet on what may have actually caused the fire.

We’ll be sure to update you when we get that information.

Copyright 2022 WTOC. All rights reserved.