Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour Closure Ends Burn Institute Partnership

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — The sudden closure of Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour this week also ended a special partnership with the Firefighters Burn Institute.

The institute was founded after the devastating 1972 plane crash into Farrell's previous location in Sacramento.

Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour is known for its flavorful scoops and family fun spunk. But 40 years ago, it became infamous for tragedy.

A plane crashed into the Farrell's off Freeport Boulevard in 1972. The tragedy helped launch the Firefighter's Burn institute, a charity support service, giving hope to burn survivors like Deonna Ledbetter.

"They would come out and support us," she says.

The institute was formed to build Sacramento's first burn treatment facility at UC Davis. It provides recovery programs for burn survivors and burn prevention education for the public and firefighters; while also supporting treatment and rehab research; and giving a small community of survivors the chance to bond.

"They allow us to go to burn retreats so we get to go to training and peer to peer support with other survivors," says Ledbetter.

But the Burn Institute says, when the Farrell's off Watt Avenue shuttered this week, it marked the end of the charity's partnership with the ice cream company.

"It just got more difficult to communicate with the company," says Jim Doucette, who heads the charity.

Executive Director Jim Doucette says the fundraising bricks in the ground outside the now closed Farrell's, will likely be relocated, or the donors will be paid back.

"We were selling them for like a $125 a piece and we would get most of the profit….[now] we have our visions for a nice memorial and will start working on that as soon as possible," he says.

For now, Deonna won't stop volunteering her fundraising time.

She'll just do it without the boost from ice cream.

"Yes, do we hope Farrell's comes back, yeah...who doesn't like to get a good ice cream…but it won't affect the treatment to burn survivors," she says.

Farrell's started out with dozens of locations.

But as of today there are only a few locations left in California.

The company president has cited a "sign of the times."

He hasn't yet responded to CBS13's request for comment on the company's severed partnership with the burn institute.