But the support from the community has the 44-year-old working on ''the principle of moving forward, not looking back'', and he now says he will be behind the bar, pouring pints, before Christmas.
About 2.30pm on Saturday, Mr Andersen was driving back from Oamaru when he received a phone call from his distraught wife, Fiona, saying the pub in Redcliff Rd was on fire.
He arrived to see the kitchen ''engulfed'' and the volunteer fire brigades of Glenavy, Oamaru and Waimate in action.
''Just as I pulled up, the brigade was getting the hoses on the situation,'' he said. ''I went inside actually ... That's your first instinct, to go in and see where it was at, see it with your own eyes.''
The fire, which started in the ''old, old wiring'' in the wall of the kitchen, gutted the kitchen and laundry, which have now been demolished, and poured smoke into the dining room, but did little damage to the recently expanded accommodation side of the business.
''We were five minutes away; the smoke started pouring into this side of the building, and I thought, 'it's gone, this is it'.''
When Mr Andersen, his wife and her parents - Merv and Andrea Hall, who ran the pub for three decades before selling to the Andersens two years ago - surveyed the ''extensive'' damage from the fire, they did not know what was in store.
But Mr Andersen credits the sense of community that Mr Hall had cultivated there for the support the place was now receiving.
''It's a community thing,'' he said.
''It's just about the social aspect of the pub, which Merv started years ago, and I'll tell you what, I am happy to have carried it through. Because to see these guys step up, it's just unbelievable.
''They put aside jobs, work, and opportunities to come to help out.''
