Landmark restaurant is lost in fire

The owner plans to rebuild the building.
By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
COITSVILLE -- A landmark business went up in flames early this morning while the owner and employees watched with tears streaming down their faces.
The Bulls Eye Restaurant, 6965 McCartney Road, was a total loss. The nearby Kings Inn Motel was evacuated as a precautionary measure.
Firefighters were hampered in fighting the blaze because there were no hydrants near the restaurant. Water had to be brought in by tanker trucks.
Joe Parsons, a longtime motel employee, notified the fire department that smoke was coming from the restaurant about 7 a.m. today after a passerby noticed smoke blowing off the roof.
Owner Wayne King was across the street getting his morning coffee at the Tic Toc Food Mart when the fire was spotted. Holding back sobs while watching the building destroyed by fire, King said he would rebuild.
Built in 1938
The landmark business was built in 1938 as Kings Inn by Wayne King's father, when King was 6 months old.
King remembers "six wee little cabins and a very small restaurant. ... We started with three acres and just kept adding on trying to make it nicer."
Over the past 66 years, Wayne had expanded the property to include 400 acres, a 38-room motel and a much larger restaurant.
While watching the fire, Wayne called his 90-year-old mother, Margaret, who is in an assisted living center, to tell her about the loss of the business she and her family had worked their whole lives to build. He didn't want her to see it on the news and worry that someone had been hurt.
Tom and Donna Moschella leased the restaurant almost 10 years ago and changed its name to the Bulls Eye. Tom Moschella had worked at the restaurant for 22 years before taking over.
Several fire and police departments responded to the blaze including Coitsville, Campbell, Struthers, Poland, Pulaski , Bessemer, North Lima, Beaver, Springfield, Neshannock, Union and Lowellville.