Mugshots burns

After watching his business burn to the ground early Monday morning, Mugshots owner Ron Savell said he isn't sure what to do.

"Seven years of hard work," he said. "Just sitting there watching it in the rubble was heartbreaking."

The USM alumnus said he got a call from one of his managers around 3:50 Monday morning. Savell then made his way to the scene.

The Hattiesburg Fire Department entered the building but couldn't find the fire, Savell said. "It's looking like it started somewhere in the roof."

The Fire Department quickly left the building to fight it from the outside, and the roof caved in soon after. When asked whether anything was left standing, Savell said, "Just the four walls – that's it. Otherwise, it's just a total loss. You couldn't see where anything had been – the dance floor, the tables, the bar … couldn't see anything."

Savell said the Hattiesburg location was the first of seven others, which now cover Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. This made the loss even harder, Savell said.

"That was our first location. It made us who we are today."

Savell isn't the only one hurting. Many USM students are lamenting the loss of the bar.

Junior Mary Lois Hanna watched the fire from her car this morning. Hanna, who lives in an apartment complex near the bar, said she woke up at 4:45 Monday morning to a phone call from her mother.

"All she said was, ‘Wake up and go outside and see if you can see the smoke. Mugshots is burning down.'"

Hanna then woke up her roommate, and the two drove down to Mugshots and watched in disbelief.

"We just realized it was gone, and it was so sad."

The two then texted their friends and received disbelieving responses later in the morning.

"No one could believe it at first," Hanna said. "We had to show them pictures of the flames, of the smoke. … They were completely in shock. It's like a piece of us is missing."

Senior history major Chaise Switzer said the bar was certainly popular among USM students.

"Mugshots may have not been the most glamorous bar by any means, but there was something about it to keep the large crowds coming," he said.

Switzer added that he'll miss the bar's hamburgers, calling them the best in the state.

Savell said the Mugshots name was about to move to a new location. The plan was for the new business to be more like a restaurant. The bar, however, would remain on Fourth Street.

Savell suggested that now plans may change.

"You never expect anything like this to happen," he said. "We don't know where to go, what to do."

Hanna and her friends, however, are trying to look forward.

"We know somehow it'll be rebuilt and be replaced, I guess – not quite sure yet but we're hoping we can rebuild it. At first we were kind of down, can't believe that happened, world is coming to an end kind of thing. But as hours passed, we realized there was no point being that emotional about something we can't help, we can't solve this second."

Hanna added that her friends were considering setting aside the money they would have spent at Mugshots and putting it toward rebuilding. Hanna called it "Operation: Rebuild Mugshots."

For now, Savell and others are still digesting what happened.

"A lot of people are out of work," he said. "A lot of them have worked here, grown up here – it's a hard pill for us to swallow."