VIDEO: The owners of a popular Wichita food truck are starting over after a recent fire destroyed the truck and everything inside. On Wednesday, 12 News spoke with the owners who say that despite the heavy loss, theyโll be back to serve the community. Kelly Ake and Barb Taber opened Ken N Barbieโz Rollin Diner in 2017. They purchased the truck themselves, ran it themselves and made the business there lives, at least until last week when tragedy struck.
โGoing down the highway, the generator had stopped, the back of the truck was on fire,โ Ake said. โI mean, I just pulled over, stopped.โ Ake and Taberโs livelihood was going up in flames. โAnd at that point, all we could do was go to the corner away from the truck and call 911,โ Ake said. โWe just watched it burn.โ
The fire destroyed their food truck, but itโs not just their future that Ake and Taber are worried about; itโs the community that they know relies on them. โItโs hard to know that weโre not able to follow through with our commitments and our scheduling,โ Ake said. โItโs hard to not be able to give back and itโs hard to be in the position to need help.โ
Rebuilding wonโt be easy. โWe stay extremely busy and with this being our livelihood, itโs going to cut real deep for us,โ Ake said.
