On Friday, Nov. 24, firefighters from four different stations converged on Ocean Beach in an effort to save one of the town’s most revered landmarks, the Lighthouse Ice Cream shop, which was on fire.

“Thanks to the quick response of six fire engines, the firefighters were able to put out the blaze before it took the building,” said Lighthouse Ice Cream owner Carol Ladiges. “My shop was pretty much destroyed, but the fire could have burned our whole building down.”

A Good Samaritan saw a cloud of black smoke sneaking out from underneath the back door of the closed ice cream shop and immediately notified fire and rescue.

“Everything was covered in thick black smoke,” said Ladiges. “Firefighters came in chopping holes in all the drywall and the ceiling looking for more fires. The fire was so hot it melted two of our two big freezers. Thank goodness someone noticed the smoke.”

Ladiges and her late husband Dick have been serving scoops of ice cream to generations of locals and visitors since 1997. Their customers are like an extended family. When news of the Lighthouse fire hit social media, they responded like family.

“The response was overwhelming,” said Ladiges. “I’ve gotten over 190 posts from the community. They offered to start a GoFundMe page and they want to do benefit concerts. I am getting messages from people who used to work for me and Dick years ago, it just makes me cry.”

Like all families, the Ladiges captured memories of each visit to their store with a photo or two. For more than 25 years each celluloid memory was pasted on a large board with the year and month, at last count they had 20,000 photos of customers and friends enjoying Lighthouse Ice Cream.

“The good news is, they (the photos) weren’t in the shop,” said Carol. “We had them stored away. Lots of people were posting online worried that we lost all those pictures, they are safe in addition to being posted online.”

 Regarding the future of Ocean Beach’s favorite ice cream shop, Ladiges said: “We will rebuild Lighthouse, it is going to be bigger and better than ever. The Lighthouse is a part of Ocean Beach history and we look forward to serving the community for years to come.”

Ladiges and her merry band of ice cream scoopers look forward to seeing everyone on their new float on Dec. 2 at the OB Holiday Parade.

Photo by Terry L. Wilson