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Quinn’s Corner owner plans to rebuild after fire

On a sunny September morning, Rick Quinn paces the outside of the business he and his wife started in 1996. Quinn’s Corner Restaurant, a popular place in ...

On a sunny September morning, Rick Quinn paces the outside of the business he and his wife started in 1996.

Quinn's Corner Restaurant, a popular place in the Abingdon, Illinois community, was boarded up. Black ash was piled in front of where the ice cream window used to be; shattered glass was spread along the main walkway. Quinn, an Army veteran, can only take it all in.

"I mean we were only gone maybe 15 minutes," Quinn said, recalling Tuesday night, September 8, 2015, the night his business caught fire. "We had just left."

"I got a phone call from one of our employees. She lives next door to Casey's and she said, 'You need to get down here.' I said, Why? She said, 'The shop is on fire,'" Quinn remembered.

According to the Abingdon fire chief, crews responded to the fire around 8:30 p.m.; they battled the flames for nearly six hours.

The building was insured, Quinn said, and he plans on beginning cleanup as soon as he receives the green light from his insurance company. Quinn said without a doubt he will reopen the restaurant, saying, "I'm too young to retire."

As of the evening of Wednesday, September 9, 2015, the Abingdon fire chief couldn't confirm how the fire started, nor would he confirm whether or not the building was a total loss.

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