John Barnhart | Bedford Bulletin

Firefighters work to douse a fire at the Olde Liberty Station Restaurant in Bedford on Friday.

BEDFORD -- The Olde Liberty Station Restaurant -- a landmark and a popular gathering spot -- was damaged Friday by a fire authorities say possibly began when a work crew heated wooden beams to strip off old paint.

The blaze, which started about 11:15 a.m. before the restaurant opened for lunch, sent two kitchen workers to the Bedford Memorial Hospital, where they were treated for smoke inhalation, said Zeph Cunningham, deputy chief of the Bedford Volunteer Fire Department.

The fire spared the kitchen and storage area but caved in the center roof and destroyed the dining area. Co-owner Harry Leist said the restaurant -- located in what was once a train station -- will eventually re-open.

"We understand we've got a lot of work to do, but we're going to reset and re-open," said manager Tim Covi, who said he ran a block in his sneakers to the restaurant after hearing it was in flames.

Billowing gray smoke from the fire brought droves of Bedford residents out to the streets, where they watched as firefighters -- nearly 75 at one point -- poured up to 2,500 gallons of water per minute onto the blaze. A section of Main Street was temporarily closed, and traffic on the nearby Norfolk Southern Railroad line was also briefly halted.

The restaurant -- known for its fried catfish and cheesecake --serves as a community center for many Bedford residents, civic organizations and church groups, which regularly gather for lunch and dinner.

"The place is just a great asset to the community," said Bedford County resident Garry Howard as he watched firefighters hacking off charred bits of the roof. "We come here a couple of times a week."

"It hits home," Cunningham said. "The owner is a personal friend. The firefighters eat here all the time. It's a personal fire for us."

The building, built in 1905 as a train station and moved to its current spot on Bedford Avenue in 1907, also has historical significance to local residents: the "Bedford Boys," the Virginia National Guard unit that landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944, passed through the station in 1941, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower campaigned at the station the following decade. According to the Bedford Museum and Genealogy Library, president-elect Warren G. Harding may also have come through the station in 1920 on his way to visit the nearby Elks Home.

The building served as a train station into the 1970s, and it was first converted into a restaurant in 1989.

Cunningham said the fire started in a back corner on the left side of the building where the painting crew was heating 105-year-old beams to loosen old paint. Cunningham said the heat possibly caught a piece of rotten wood on fire, and the fire rapidly spread through two attics inaccessible to firefighters.

Firefighters from a station less than one-tenth of a mile away were at the restaurant within five minutes of being called, Cunningham said. He added that the fire has been ruled accidental.

Heather Williams, Leist's daughter and co-owner of the restaurant, said she was outside with the painting crew when they saw the smoke pour out of the corner.

"The gentlemen who were doing the work feel sick about this," she said. "But I don't blame them, this was an accident. I feel worse for them than for me."