THE Dunster community was this week rallying around Justin and Claire Reeves, whose fine dining restaurant was destroyed by fire in the early hours of Friday (September 5).

Mrs Reeves’ brother Nigel Frith launched an online fund-raising appeal to help the couple which had brought in more than £2,100 in the first 24 hours.

Mr Frith said: “You will know about the fire at their restaurant which has destroyed much of the kitchen area, smoke damaged the entire restaurant and all the living accommodation.

“We are working with the insurance to see what can be covered.

“But, Claire and Justin know that they will face a very difficult financial time and it will be a little while before the restaurant can be opened.

“Therefore, I have set this GoFundMe page up as there have been many wonderful well-wishers who want to contribute in some way to help with the next few months of Claire and Justin’s life.

“All donations are incredibly appreciated and I hope that this goes some way toward helping them get back on their feet.

“Thank you for any contribution you can make.”

The couple had owned their multi award-winning Reeves restaurant, in High Street, for nearly 20 years before disaster struck last week.

The fire started at about 1 am in a tumble dryer at the back of a ground floor kitchen and quickly spread through the three-storey grade two listed building, but the family were able to escape unharmed.

What was not destroyed by fire was mostly damaged by smoke, leaving the 40-cover restaurant and its 50-cover rear walled garden closed indefinitely.

A clean-up operation began on Monday as a professional cleaning company arrived to carry out a full survey of the building.

Mrs Reeves said: “So many have asked us how you can help, we are truly humbled.

“As soon as we have met with the loss assessor we will be in a better position to reach out to all of you.

“In the immediate future, we need a three-bedroomed, furnished, pet friendly house, preferably with garage or space for us to clean our possessions for a period of around six months.

“Although we are still waiting for the insurance assessor to visit the property, we have been assured our insurance will give us financial assistance for the payment of rent.

“The next thing we need is some kind of truck with a tow-bar so we can move all of our furniture and personal possessions over a two or three-day period later this week or early next week to secure storage areas.

“My brother has set up a GoFundMe page to help us with our personal items as we unfortunately did not have contents insurance for our personal possessions most of which are going to have to be disposed of.”

Mrs Reeves said on a positive note, a missing canary, one of a couple they kept, had been found by neighbours and they were able to return it to her sister-in-law and breeder Pia.