HALL COUNTY, Ga. — It has been a week since a massive fire destroyed a Hall County winery, and officials still have not confirmed how it started.
Channel 2′s Candace McCowan sat down with the owners of Sweet Acre Farms Winery who are devasted to have watched their business burn down.
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“Lindsey handed me an extinguisher and I ran over here,” remembers owner Matthew Vrahiotes.
When he got word his winery was on fire, he rushed over. He and his wife, Lindsey Vrahiotes, got there quickly, but it was too late.
“By then it was engulfed enough to know there is nothing I can do with my extinguisher,” he described.
“I got out of the car and I immediately fell to my knees, I just couldn’t believe it,” said Lindsey Vrahiotes.
The burned metal and wood once held the Sweet Acre Farms Winery tasting room and wine press where they made, stored and bottled fruit wine.
“We lost, I would say well over 90% of our inventory,” Matthew Vrahiotes said.
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They’re now working with insurance, and preparing to cut through the red tape of rebuilding.
And a community effort is trying to help Sweet Acre Farms Winery and its owners get back on their feet.
A GoFundMe page raising more than $23,000 in just days.
“It does give us some sense of relief that at least we know we can take care of bills for a while while we get through all of this,” said Lindsey.
In the midst of the rubble, the Vrahiotes family is channeling the passion that helped them start all those years ago to rebuild.
“We were the first winery in Hall County since prohibition. At one time, we were the youngest winery owners in the state of Georgia.”
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