Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Diner destroyed by early morning fire

Arson was apparently the cause of a fire the totally destroyed Wolves during the early morning hours of Feb. 9. Wolves - a local restaurant that has been in business in several forms for almost a half century - is something of a local icon.

Scott Clark with the Arkansas State Police said Monday that the investigation is still underway, but one thing is evident.

This is a crime, Clark said. Obviously, it was intentionally set.

Owners Kelia and Ron Murphy said theyve owned the restaurant since 1996.

We bought it for Joshua, Kelia said, referring to her son. He took pride in what he did. Now its gone and we have no insurance to rebuild.

Kelia said she was notified of the fire about 2:15 a.m. on Feb. 9. The building is a total loss and the Murphys say there is little to be salvaged from inside.

Ron said they had faced some difficult financial decisions over the past few months that led to the elimination of the insurance. Kelia said there had been some electric bills in the $1,000 range.

Its like these people who have to decide, Am I going to pay my rent or am I going to pay my light bill, Kelia said.

At least we werent having to decide between paying the light bill and feeding our kids, Ron said. But if you dont have lights you cant run a restaurant.

The Murphys said they continued to carry liability insurance to cover patrons, but ultimately decided to gamble and let the remainder of the insurance policy drop.

Its not a sound business decision, but its all we could do, Kelia said.

Prescott firefighters put out the fire and local law enforcement responded. The Arkansas State Police fire investigators were at the scene most of Friday afternoon and Kelia said there seemed to be little doubt as to the cause of the fire.

The investigators found quite a bit of information, Kelia said. We dont know if the person was just sloppy or left those things on purpose.

The Murphys said they hope the investigation comes to a conclusion quickly with the name of the person who started the blaze.

The diner began as a convenience store complete with gas pumps in 1962 under the ownership of Dick Harvey. His son eventually took over the store and it sold in the late 1980s to Bonnie Sams before the Murphys bought it in the 1990s.

The decor featured posters and memorabilia from decades gone by.