Chenay Bay Restaurant Burns To Ashes; Owner Thankful For Safety Of Employees

ST. CROIX — Shoreline at Chenay Bay, the waterfront restaurant located at the beach resort on the east end of this island just past Cheese Burgers in Paradise, burned to ashes in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, Derek Shupe, owner of the restaurant told The Consortium this afternoon.

Mr. Shupe said he was not quite sure what caused the fire, but observers have blamed last night’s unusual amount of lightning for the blaze; an assumption Mr. Shupe was leaning towards himself. Last night saw heavy downpours both in the St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John districts, along with an abundance of lightning.

“Fire [Service] came out, I received a call at about 3:00 in the morning and about 3:30 I got a call from the manager of the hotel, and I didn’t wake up until about four,” Mr. Shupe, who also owns Shupe’s on the Boardwalk, said. “What it looks like is that the hood got hit by lightning, but I really don’t know. I run restaurants; don’t know much about fires.”

The facility’s entire kitchen was burned flat, along with a northeast-facing deck. Most of the inner dinning section was spared, but the fire made its way to the ceiling, damaging a great portion of it.

Mr. Shupe, appearing to be upbeat, said the incident had taken its toll, and mourned the loss of some sections of the restaurant that he built.

“Only part is I built the deck, I built the bar, I built all that myself so it’s kind of difficult,” he said. “And everything was brand new; we’ve only been open for a year and a half. It could have been worse, that’s how I’m thinking.

And Mr. Shupe was thankful that none of his employees — who had joined their boss at the badly damaged facility in a show of support this afternoon — were hurt. And with insurance covering the restaurant, he should recover with time.

“As long as none of my staff was not hurt, possessions can be replaced, people cannot,” he said.