Daytona Beach Morning Journal
By Lee Hansen
Published Monday, May 26, 1975
Rare auto license plates, warped under the intense heat and century old newspapers turn to chart ash as a fire heavily damaged a well-known local business Sunday afternoon
Gil barbecue 782 S Yonge street between Holly Hill and Ormond Beach, had been closed for a week for remodeling when the fire started shortly after 2:30 PM, said Briggs Gilliam, the owner "my family and I live right behind the building" he said.
"We just come home from church and I was taking a nap when my wife saw smoke rolling out the back windows. I tried to get through the back door while she called the fire department, but there was too much smoke and heat."
Gilliam and his wife stood by helplessly with his father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. M. B. Gilliam, who have run the business since 1954, as Halifax, fire department members battle the blaze for more than an hour before extinguishing it.
"I just don't know what could have happened." The senior Mrs. Gilliam said. "None of the equipment has been on all week long because the restaurant was shut down. There were no fires in the barbecue pits or anything like that"
She said the remodeling work had just been completed, and the barbecue house would have reopened today.
"I've been a cook here for 19 years" said James Truitt. "We've had a few small chimney fires before, but never anything like this. Besides the damage to the building, a lot of those priceless, old newspapers, license plates, and other antiques were destroyed."
Over the years, the two generations of Gilliams have collected an array of historic newspaper, front pages, rare auto tags and other items, and put them on permanent display in the popular dining spot.
While some of the displays in a rear dining room appeared to have escaped serious damage, others in a front dining area were charred beyond recognition. Moments after the last flames were extinguished, the younger Gilliam was inside, sorting through the blackened rubble, carefully picking up and setting aside any antique that seemed salvageable. With Truitt, helping, he took down a row of stone jugs, their corks scorched and crumbling, from a display shelf.
Fireman said they weren't sure what caused the blaze and hadn't had time to figure out a damage estimate. One firefighter said it appeared the fire started somewhere in the kitchen area.
The place totally destroyed the kitchen and did heavy damage to the cast register area and front dining room. Scores of once colorful old license plates, tacked to the walls and ceilings have been burned free and littered the water, soaked floor and grayish black patches.
Truitt remembered a newspaper page display he said dated back to the 1700s, but on checking he couldn't find a trace of it.
BARBECUE HOUSE BURNS - Fireman work to extinguish a Sunday afternoon fire which heavily damaged Gill's Bar-B-Que at 782 S. Yonge St. Units of the Halifax Fire Dept. spent more than an hour putting out the blaze of undetermined origin.