Kirsty MckenzieREALITY star James Argent has pledged to help support pal Elliott Wright rebuild Olivia’s after the popular restaurant was devastated by an early morning blaze.
The celebrity hot spot in La Cala de Mijas, Spain, was badly damaged in the fire, which began around 5am Monday morning.
Owner Elliott Wright, a TV celebrity back home in the UK, had only recently taken on a new team for the season.
Appearing on Loose Women, TOWIE star and friend of Elliot’s, James Argent offered his support to the staff at Olivia’s.
Arg, 33, said: “A shout-out to Elliott Wright – I love you very much. His dad’s died recently.
“Unfortunately, Olivia’s was set on fire. I know we can’t talk too much about it but I just want to tell him I love him and that if anyone can turn this around and build Olivia’s back to where it was, it’s him and we’re all rooting for him.
“Even if it means I’ve got to fly out to Spain when I can and start labouring and helping him out then I will.”
Earlier today, Elliott took to to share a video of himself walking around the burnt ruins of the restaurant, saying that “spiteful nasty people” had taken his dream away from him.
He wrote: “So yes my dream has been cruelly taken away from me by some spiteful nasty people, for what ever reason I will probably never know, all that matters really is that I will rebuild and WILL be back.”
Meanwhile Elliott took to social media to share footage of the burnt ruins of the restaurant and said that that ‘spiteful nasty people’ had taken his dream away from him.
Two teams of firemen – eight in personel in all – took two hours to bring the fierce blaze under control. The fire had broken out at around 5.50am with it declared extinguised at 7.330am, although firefighters remained at the scene damping down until after 9am. The building has been totally gutted.
A water wagon from Mijas town hall was standing by.
Later the 41-year-old former The Only Way Is Essex star walked around the ashes remains of the restaurant and labelled those responsible for the blaze as ‘scumbags’.
Speaking to his followers on the video, Elliott said: “So probably one of my worst videos I’ve ever made.
“My beautiful restaurant, my dream that I always dreamt of having, that I built six years ago, that was still work in progress, has been completely destroyed, absolutely destroyed.”
He added: “Devastated. And I can say now that it is arson. Someone’s come and took my whole dream away, for whatever reason I’ll never know, because I don’t have any enemies as far as I’m aware, I didn’t think I did.
“Whether it’s jealousy or competition, it doesn’t really matter.”
In another post to his Instagram he said: “My dream has been cruelly taken away from me by some spiteful nasty people, for what ever reason I will probably never know, all that matters really is that I will rebuild and WILL be back.. @olivias_la_cala 2021 may be delayed more then we wanted… but we have all waited long enough, a little longer and we will be back with a bang.. I want to thank everyone who has came with offers of help or a simply kind message, I’ve genuinely been touched, including my Spanish community as well as the mayor Josele Gonzalez, you have all been amazing, you realise in time of trouble the people that are there for you..”
The TOWIE star, who also had his own TV show Playa in Marbella, had worked hard to get the place up and running again after a very hard winter due to the COVID virus.
We reported from the scene on Monday where Elliott told the Olive Press he had no idea why it had happened.
“I don’t have any enemies so I don’t know if it’s arson or electrical,” he said, while being comforted by friends outside.
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