Commercial catering building, bulk cookhouse, food preparation area, and some administrative offices of Piggy Park Bar-B-Que burned to the ground Saturday night

Cayce, SC 10/27/2024 (Paul Kirby) – The commercial catering building, bulk cookhouse, food preparation area, and some administrative offices of Piggy Park Bar-B-Que burned to the ground Saturday night. This complex was located on Charleston Highway in the 1600 block near Airport Boulevard in the Cayce area of Lexington County. The mainstay restaurant, iconic large pig on the Piggy Park sign, and the 50s-style drive-in spaces did not appear to be affected by the blaze.

Firefighters and equipment from across the Midlands rushed to Cayce to battle this third alarm blaze. Each alarm is struck by a senior supervisor and is a way for that individual to request more equipment and resources without having to individually name what he needs. Each individual alarm is normally laid out far in advance by whoever did the pre-fire plan on the business as a part of the fire inspection and pre-fire planning process.

The original alarm came in around 10:00 p.m. and quickly advanced through the alarms as firefighters arrived on scene. They quickly found heavy smoke and flames coming from the roof. Early in the firefighting response, a crew did try to advance a handline in the rear of the building, but that attack was aborted almost immediately, and the firefighters were called back outside by a safety officer who was rightly afraid that the roof would start coming down trapping personnel inside.  

At that point, a large diameter water supply hose had been hooked to a hydrant across Charleston Highway. This completely closed that thoroughfare that would have been congested if the fire had occurred during a busy commuting period. Eventually, as the fire raged, more supply hoses completely shut down the busy intersection of Charleston Highway and Airport Boulevard as hoses, fire equipment, and personnel filled the area.

Because the roof of the complex was beginning to collapse, large aerial ladders and tower trucks were raised and each eventually began to flow water from their water pipes mounted on their tips. The fact that both Cayce and West Columbia’s first response fire towers were out of service due to mechanical issues did not hamper the fire attack. Trucks with the same capabilities quickly poured into Cayce from Lexington County, the City of Columbia, and the Irmo Fire District. As the ladders began to fill the space above the fire, thousands of gallons of water per minute rained down on the building from the night sky.

Eventually, members of the Bessinger family gathered across Charleston Highway and watched as the fire crews worked. More than once, one of the Bessinger men, the sons of the flamboyant founder of the business Maurice Bessinger, remarked they were blessed that no one had been hurt and the original restaurant was untouched by the fire. Someone eventually unlocked the original restaurant and began serving iced tea and lemonade to the emergency crews as they worked. It is believed that there are still some cookers located in that building so that some operations can continue while the destroyed building is rebuilt.

There were some inspirational instances of extraordinary service from the public early into this fire as the flames began to build. In one case, the driver of a heavy wrecker service saw what was happening and began dragging catering and delivery trucks from the front of the burning building across Charleston Highway to the lot of the plasma center with his large wrecker. Some of the trailers, trucks, and delivery vehicles had bumpers bent by this process but were saved from what would have been sure destruction had they not been moved. The Piggy Park brand depends on the trucks for catering, delivery to their smaller restaurants, and delivery to wholesale customers. Had they been wiped out by the blaze, that would have been just one more detail that would have to be figured out before operations could continue.

Firefighters brought the blaze under control hours later. It appears as if no one was seriously injured as the crews work through the night. Heavy equipment and fresh fire crews arrived on Sunday and began the arduous task of pulling back all the sheet metal of the collapsed roof and putting water on hotspots. It will probably be several more days before a fire marshal and insurance adjusters can get into the debris and begin investigating the cause of the fire and adjusting the damage to the gutted building.

This is an ongoing story. We will try to keep you up to date as it changes.

Photo by Tim Spires for the Lexington Ledger