Community helping dessert food truck owner buy new truck after it catches fire on I-59

    BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (WVTM) -- March 14th was a terrifying afternoon for Treats so Sweet owner Jermeria Johnson. One of her employees called her to say her dessert food truck was on fire.

"Tam's OK. I'm OK, Everybody's OK. It's gone y'all. It's OK. We can get another truck. Thank you, lord. Thank you for saving us,” Johnson said in a Facebook live video filming her truck on fire.

Johnson and her employees had just sold cake slices and candied apples in Forestdale.

On the way back, Johnson says the truck exploded on Interstate-59, right after her employee saw smoke.

"We lost the money for that day. We lost, you know, cones that we used them to help other truck down by diamond furniture and stuff like that. A lot of things that we lost that was in the truck. But it's okay. It's material, you know, can't get a life back,” Johnson said.

Johnson started treats so sweet 15 years ago. She's spent over $50,000 on the custom-made dessert truck alone. The business has grown to now include an ice cream truck and two storefronts: a creamery and dessert shop in the Huffman area. She closed both 6 months ago — because people stopped coming.

“I know that it's hard for people to, you know, purchase things. The truck there's so much better because we go out to the community, and we actually go to the people,” Johnson said.

Now the people are coming to her aid. They created a GoFundMe page to help her buy a new dessert truck.

“My friends reached out to me and I was like, 'Hey, it's OK.' Let somebody be a blessing to you sometimes. So I'm OK with it now,” Johnson said.

Johnson still has to pay the store leases, her part-time employees, and feed her family.

Most of that money came from the dessert truck, but now she's relying on her old business plan, setting up tents and one ice cream truck.

"I know that God is good. So, I'm going to get a new truck. I just don't know how soon is going to be. But yeah, I'm definitely going to get it,” Johnson said.

Until Johnson gets a new dessert truck, she’ll use her ice cream truck to sell her desserts, too.