Fire destroys Mainstreet

Cause, future still unknown

A fire consumed both floors of Mainstreet Bar and Grill in downtown Harrisonburg Saturday, closing three city blocks and scorching the now uninhabitable building.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, according to the Harrisonburg Fire Department.
There are no suspicions that this was an intentional fire.

"For all intents and purposes, the restaurant is destroyed," Harrisonburg Fire Chief Larry Shifflett said.

The blaze was a two-alarm fire, Shifflett said. The size of a fire determines its classification; one-alarm fires are the smallest and five-alarms are the largest.

The restaurant was closed at the time of the fire and no one was inside the building. An automatic fire alarm system sent notification of the fire to the HFD at 4:02 p.m.

"There were no sprinklers in the building," Shifflett said. "Had it not been for the automatic fire alarm, the fire would have been a lot worse."

None of the surrounding businesses suffered substantial damage, Shifflett said. Costs of the damage have not been estimated and the future of the structure is unknown.

"We had an extremely difficult time finding where the fire was," Shifflett said. "The fire on the first floor was extinguished, but the fire in the roof area gave us trouble." He said that the HFD had to knock about a dozen holes in the roof-line to determine where the fire was. Shifflett said the fire was found on the floor and ceiling of the first floor and the roof of the building.

About 55 fire fighters responded to the scene, most of which were from the HFD. Shifflett said surrounding fire stations either responded or waited at their stations to take fire calls in the HFD’s jurisdiction. The last fire crew left the scene around midnight, Shifflett said. The fire investigation continued into Sunday afternoon.

South Main Street from Franklin Street to Court Square was closed and cross-streets in the area also were closed between Mason and Liberty streets.

Shifflett said fighting the fire in the downtown area was not a problem. "Downtown, we had pretty good street access to the building and water supply," he said.

"To the best of my knowledge, the building was up to [fire] code," Shifflett said.

One firefighter was transported to the hospital for medical attention. "It was just a bit of heat exhaustion from being overworked," Shifflett said.

B.C. Moyer, a K-9 officer with the Harrisonburg Police Department, said, "There’s no doubt in my mind that they’re going to have to redo everything," Moyer said that this was the worst fire he’s seen in downtown Harrisonburg in years.

The owners were out-of-town and unavailable for comment.

"This is our income and we’ve all got kids," said Debi Newkirk, booking manager for Mainstreet. "We’re just holding on right now."

Additional photos from the fire