FORT PIERCE, Fla. — A popular food truck on the Treasure Coast has been forced to close up shop after an electrical fire damaged it.
Tim Bartnick, the owner of Big Worm's BBQ, is now trying to rebound after flames destroyed his business.
"Our goal has always been to try to make something unique and make something that people," Bartnick said.
For nearly three years he's operated out of his food truck, located on the property of Wheelz and Dealz Auto Sales along U.S. Highway 1 in Fort Pierce. He's now out of business and out thousands of dollars.
"Somewhere in the neighborhood of $20,000. Between the smoker, the trailer, we just re-upped all of our supplies on Monday and it happened 12 hours later," Bartnick said.
The fire left behind charred remains of what used to be the main hub of his food truck operation.
"This trailer here was primarily used for smoking meats overnight," Bartnick said. "We use probably a 16-hour process of smoking pulled pork, brisket, we do ribs, so everything overnight would be cooked in here."
With no insurance on the property, he said he's forced to start over from scratch on his own.
"When we had this, it was something we bought purchased used, purchased it with a used smoker and never in a million years did we think something like this was going to happen, so the thought of insurance never came into play," Bartnick said. "It sounds oblivious, now, how could you not impossibly do it with running a business? It didn't feel like we were cutting corners or anything like that. It didn't even cross your mind to (think), like, 'OK, this is something we need to take care of.'"
He's already received help from the community, including customers, friends and Treasure Coast businesses, and he remains optimistic that he'll be able to recover soon.
"I think we can come back bigger and better than ever," Bartnick said.
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