{"id":53016,"date":"2025-01-01T17:58:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-01T22:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=53016"},"modified":"2025-01-01T18:03:04","modified_gmt":"2025-01-01T23:03:04","slug":"community-lends-support-as-major-fire-closes-treasured-auburndale-pizza-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/01\/01\/community-lends-support-as-major-fire-closes-treasured-auburndale-pizza-shop\/","title":{"rendered":"Community lends support as major fire closes treasured Auburndale pizza shop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A fire has caused Pizza Connection, a treasured Auburndale staple, to temporarily close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI was scrubbing the shelves; seasoning the shelves and I heard something fall to my left,\u201d said Cole Rutledge, owner of Pizza Connection.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"746e6a\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #746e6a;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"875\" height=\"495\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-74-1-png.webp?resize=875%2C495&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-53017 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-74-1-png.webp?w=875&amp;ssl=1 875w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-74-1-png.webp?resize=300%2C170&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-74-1-png.webp?resize=768%2C434&amp;ssl=1 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rutledge was just finishing up some prep work at his pizza shop Sunday night when suddenly a fire broke out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI stepped out back, took one step back, and seen a little bit of smoke. I took one more step back and seen a lot of smoke,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As flames came from the roof, Rutledge tried to contain the fire as much as possible before Auburndale Fire Department arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The cause of the fire is still unknown but what is clear is that it will take several weeks before Pizza Connection can reopen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is devastating news for customers who have enjoyed visiting the restaurant for nearly 35 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe got our regulars come, three, four times a week, whether it\u2019s pick-up or delivery. I know a lot of the community and I&#8217;m so blessed that they have supported us over the years,\u201d Rutledge said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The community continues to support the Auburndale staple as it rebuilds, rallying together to create a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/support-pizza-connections-comeback?attribution_id=sl:f40a4e45-59ee-4248-a948-18284f336f8f&amp;utm_campaign=man_sharesheet_dash&amp;utm_medium=customer&amp;utm_source=copy_link\">GoFundMe&nbsp;<\/a>that will help with remodeling and keep employees on payroll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI am blessed. I\u2019m beyond shocked. It&#8217;s just amazing how much the community actually comes together and cares for somebody,\u201d Rutledge said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-wp-embed is-provider-embed wp-block-embed-embed\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"0eaiMpM8Rc\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/12\/30\/commercial-fire-pizza-connection-auburndale\/\">Commercial Fire Pizza Connection &#8211; Auburndale<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Commercial Fire Pizza Connection &#8211; Auburndale&#8221; &#8212; \" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/12\/30\/commercial-fire-pizza-connection-auburndale\/embed\/#?secret=MYWiI64hrh#?secret=0eaiMpM8Rc\" data-secret=\"0eaiMpM8Rc\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A fire has caused Pizza Connection, a treasured Auburndale staple, to temporarily close. \u201cI was scrubbing the shelves; seasoning the shelves and I heard something fall to my left,\u201d said&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDFcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtNzQtMS1wbmcud2VicD9maXQ9ODc1JTJDNDk1JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiQ29tbXVuaXR5IGxlbmRzIHN1cHBvcnQgYXMgbWFqb3IgZmlyZSBjbG9zZXMgdHJlYXN1cmVkIEF1YnVybmRhbGUgcGl6emEgc2hvcCIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.g0XLdHnQzqO3xWD_6RyOni42xKj410C5s-RB-k5_m5wMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":53017,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-74-1-png.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[10625],"class_list":["post-53016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-community-lends-support-as-major-fire-closes-treasured-auburndale-pizza-shop"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53016"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53019,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53016\/revisions\/53019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}