In the early hours of Saturday morning, October 26, Lithgow's popular Blue Fox Bar and Kitchen was alight.
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After almost three years in business it was a devastating blow to owner Kat Alexander and her daughters Laura and Holly.
Kat said the alarm for the building went off on her phone, so she jumped out of bed and raced down to restaurant.
"As soon as I was in the street I saw the orange sky and the flames and... my heart just sank.
"I phoned the girls and my dad, we just stood there outside in our pyjamas watching the fire brigade work tirelessly," she said.
A policeman entered the building to get the business' events diary and the fire brigade managed to get the freezers out and empty the alcohol out of them, according to Kat.
She said the majority of damage was to the right-hand side of the building where the fire came through the ladies toilet window.
"The fire started in the adjacent property and lit the rubbish that was up against our wall. It burned and smashed the window and went up into the ceiling," she said.
Kat said while there was significant damage, and a new roof, floors, ladies toilet and function room were needed, they were very lucky.
"Our bar's still there, our kitchen is still there and some furniture.
"If it had been the other side we would have lost the whole thing because the gas is on that side," she said.
Kat said it would take around six months for The Blue Fox to be repaired and in the meantime the business would relocate to The Old Exchange building in Main Street.
"We all agreed because now we know how long the repairs will take, we need to keep going because we need to earn an income and the staff need a job," she said.
She hoped to be open in two weeks with a "funky, fresh summer menu".
"That's the game plan and it's all in motion. We really need to keep going and show the community that we're not going to just fall apart, we will keep going," she said.
Kat said she was also trying to give hours to the staff of The Blue Fox at The Fast Fox.
"We hope to keep them working for our business until we can give them full time employment again. We've even had offers from the Workies Club to employ our staff and Zig Zag Motel said they will do what they can do," she said.
She also said the Lithgow Golf Club and Tin Shed offered use of their venues.
"It's overwhelming but we've decided we need to be in our own building so very kindly the owners of The Old Exchange have agreed to a short term lease with us," she said.
Kat also wanted to thank Harvey Norman Lithgow for the generous donation of an oven.
"We do the cooking for both our venues at The Blue Fox, so the very day of the fire I knew I had to go and buy a new oven for The Fast Fox.
"I went up to Harvey Norman and asked if they had a display model or something, they said they had one in the warehouse so I asked how much and they were adamant about giving it to us as a donation, it was very kind of them," she said.
Kat said the community response had been amazing with loving messages, flowers and people coming in crying.
"The support has been amazing. I think if this had happened in Sydney you would never ever have had this response. The community here really stands together," she said.
"Someone put a comment on our Facebook about if we've ever wondered how much The Blue Fox was loved, now we know."