Atlanta

BBQ restaurant owner felt like he was ‘back in Vietnam’ after seeing fire caused by gas leak

By Tom Jones, WSB-TV
By Tom Jones, WSB-TV

ATLANTA — The owner of the restaurant that exploded after a gas leak says he wants the company that caused the leak to pay for the damages.

Freddie Jones has owned Po Freddie’s on Campbellton Road and Dodson Drive for more than 40 years. It caught fire on Monday after a gas leak in the area.

Channel 2′s Tom Jones spoke to him about the explosion and a dangerous encounter that brought the two together nearly 20 years ago. Jones told him he survived that ordeal and will survive this one too.

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“All I know, it blowed up and I don’t have no BBQ place no more,” Jones said about what caused the explosion that left his restaurant looking like something from a war. “That place look like a young Vietnam. I thought I was back in Vietnam.”

Freddie Jones says all of his hard work keeping the business afloat went up in flames, all because, according to Atlanta Gas Light, an unrelated contractor damaged a gas line while installing underground fiber cables Monday morning.

“And that’s what caused the whole kaboom,” Freddie Jones said.

Jones thinks the contractor should pay for the massive damage to his business.

“He the one caused it. His people caused it. They the one bust the pipe,” he said.

Freddie Jones attempted to get to his restaurant that morning, but crews turned him away because of a gas leak.

His life could have been in danger, like it was back in 2007. That’s when Channel 2′s Tom Jones interviewed him right after he was inside a bank when a gunman came in and told him it was a robbery.

“I thought it was somebody in the bank that came up behind me and was just joking,” he told Tom Jones then.

Tom Jones asked when he knew it was real. “When I felt that steel behind my head,” Freddie Jones quickly replied.

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The restaurant owner was glad to be alive when Tom Jones spoke to him at his home after that encounter.

“I’m thanking God now, drinking my beer,” Freddie Jones replied.

Freddie Jones says he survived that and plans to survive this too. He says this isn’t the end of Po Freddie’s.

“I’m not a loser so, you know, I’m going to reopen,” he proclaimed.

Freddie Jones says he has heard from the City of Atlanta, but no one has said who will pay to restore his restaurant. He said he would cook food at his business to feed the homeless and wants to do that again.

The restaurant said that after all that, someone came in and stole beer and wine that wasn’t damaged by the fire.

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