Burger King damaged in explosion is cooking again

A Burger King restaurant that suffered heavy damage in an April 24 fire and explosion reopened Saturday at 3030 Mount Vernon Rd., SE, Cedar Rapids after almost $600,000 in repairs and improvements.

The rebuilt store incorporates a double drive-through instead of the previous single-drive through, and has a new exterior appearance that fits with Burger King's new store concept, said Perry Beaton, president of the Beaton Inc., Cedar Rapids, which owns the restaurant.

The explosion and fire took place about 30 minutes before the restaurant was set to open for the day. Investigators still don't know exactly what happened to cause an explosion so powerful that it blew parts of the building's exterior walls off the foundation and caused others to buckle outward.

Cedar Rapids Fire Department investigators traced the fire to smoking materials extinguished on the outside wall of the restaurant near the front entrance, an area where an employee had attempted to extinguish a cigarette. Beaton Inc. has 19 Burger King restaurants. It shifted managers from the Mount Vernon Road SE store to other locations while the store was closed, and employees who wanted hours at other stores were also offered opportunities.

Beaton said the rebuild didn't fully incorporate Burger King's new store concept because some of the most costly equipment was still reusable. The remodeling of one of Beaton's other Burger King restaurants at 395 33rd Ave. SW, Cedar Rapids will more fully incorporate the new restaurant concept.