SEYMOUR, Conn. — Downtown Seymour is working to make a comeback after a fire devastated several businesses on Bank Street and Main Street two weeks ago.
A pizza shop, displaced by the fire, opened its doors once again this week. Dino Bomova, who runs Seymour Train Station Pizza with his family, welcomed back hungry customers who came to support the restaurant after the fire at the building next door forced them to shut down.
"When we closed down it was terrible," Bomova said. "It was like 11 days like we don't know what's going to happen. We don't know how much damage we're going to have."
Just two weeks ago, the downtown area was covered in smoke as fire tore through the building next door to the pizza shop. Bomova told FOX61 he had to evacuate the restaurant and called 911 to alert fire crews.
Four businesses next door--a barbershop, massage parlor and two antique shops--turned to rubble, but Bomova's shop just a few feet away was spared.
"Very important. It's my everything," Bomova said. "My son, he was making pizza at age five, now, he's 27."
His restaurant, which opened just two months ago, and about a dozen residents in the apartments upstairs were displaced by the fire.
They were allowed to return once the building was safe.
Bomova said he had to throw out all the food and open liquor as well as reorder new ingredients.
"We came Sunday--me, my son, my wife, and my daughter--we were here until midnight prepping the food: lasagna, marinara sauce, the dough," he said.
Bomova said cleanup and restoration crews came through to clear smoke and water damage after the fire.
"They cleaned the ceilings, the walls," he said. "A little bit of water in the basement and it made a mess to my papers, my documents. It's going to take time but we're going to recover."
They don't know the full extent of the damages yet but they're glad to be back and hungry customers are as well.
"The fire happened a couple weeks ago and we know they lost some revenue so tonight we decided to come out and support the restaurant and have a nice meal,” Kevin O'Connor from Seymour said.
As for the other businesses destroyed in the fire, a GoFundMe account has been created for the barbershop and one of the antique stores is looking for a temporary space until they can rebuild.
Elisha Machado is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at emachado@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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