COVINGTON, Ga. – No one was injured when the Tickled Pig BBQ restaurant caught on fire Tuesday morning, according to Covington Fire Department interim fire chief Joe Doss.

Doss told The Covington News that the fire started in a small room outside of the main restaurant that is referred to as a “smoke room.”

“They have a small room out back of the primary restaurant that they use as a smoke room or smoke house and that’s where the fire actually occurred,” Doss said. “We know for a fact that the fire occurred in that smoke room, smoke house type deal.”

Doss stated that the fire was discovered by three employees of the restaurant who began to smell smoke and hear popping noises. After discovering the smoke room was on fire, the employees were able to walk out of the front door of the main restaurant and contacted emergency services.

When asked for further comment, Doss praised the efforts of the Covington Fire Department while also providing some insight on the extent of the fire.

“[I’m] glad that the fire department was able to get there and do what we did, which was save the main structure, but there was significant water and smoke damage,” Doss said. “I hope they’ll [Tickled Pig BBQ] be able to go in and at least recover their equipment and things like that; if they can’t salvage the building, I also understand that.”

Tickled Pig BBQ released a statement on their Facebook page Tuesday morning thanking firefighters and providing optimism about the future.

 “We experienced a fire today that will keep our doors closed for now indefinitely in Covington… Our staff did a great job clearing the building and parking lots to make sure everyone was safe and our fine firemen worked so hard today to put out the blaze. Thank you to everyone! It’s was [sic] a short six weeks, but we will be back!”