The Store Bar & Grill at 16 Bloomingdale Avenue was a bar and nightclub in a converted grocery store. It burned to the ground on July 31, 1976.
Firemen battle flames at The Store during the peak of the fire.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, August 23, 1976Adirondack Daily Enterprise, August 23, 1976
Three Saranac Lake businesses burn
Casier's Appliances, Ken's Bar and The Store lost in early Saturdays morning blaze, estimated damages in excess of $250,000
By CHARLES DECKER
SARANAC LAKE — The costliest fire in the village's history destroyed three thriving Bloomingdale Avenue businesses Saturday morning, as a blazing inferno claimed the Casier Appliance Store, Ken's Bar, and The Store discotheque.
Miraculously there were no injuries.
The blaze, which, apparently broke out on an outside stairway at the rear of Ken's Bar, spread rapidly from its starting point kindled by dry, wooden structures, and safety releases from nearby propane gas systems. By the time firemen and trucks arrived at; the scene shortly after midnight Friday, 30-foot flames were shooting from the roof of the appliance store's warehouse.
The fire was discovered by Dick Ohmann, an employe of Ken's Bar, as he was bringing some garbage out to the rear of that establishment. Ohmann thought he saw a light on near the stairway.and upon closer investigation found that a small fire was burning.
He shouted to Dave Greenier in the bar to call the fire department. Ohmann and Greenier then rushed to the two apartments above the bar and evacuated the residents, hurrying them to the street below. Some of the residents were brought out wrapped in. sheets and blankets— all of their, belongings remained in the apartments. The first fire truck at the scene was driven by Harrison Kent, who pulled the pumper he was driving, up to the alley between Ken's and The Store. "When I looked down that alley," Kent commented, "I saw flames shooting 20 or 30 feet into the' air," Kent immediately radioed a dispatch to the station requesting additional trucks and firefighters.
The loud sirens and flashing lights of the fire trucks brought throngs of people to the fire scene, which had become a raging blaze in the storage house of the Casier Appliance Store. As the street filled with onlookers, firemen attached hoses to three hydrants in the vicinity and began streaming water on the fire, fighting it from the alleyway, and the roofs of The Store and the Casier's Furniture store.
In the meantime, Fire Chief Robert Nadon ordered the evacuation of all adjacent buildings. People poured out of both The Store and the Saranac Lanes joining the large assemblage in the street. Well over 1,500 people had gathered by this time, and village police quickly organized a crowd control force, as well as roadblocks cordoning off Bloomingdale Ave. from the intersections with Broadway and Church St.
Nadon then carried out a routine inspection of the nearby buildings, and determined that there was no immediate fire danger to either The Store or the bowling alley. He dispatched men to keep an eye on the buildings, particularly the roofs where fallen embers might start the tarring compound burning.
At a little, after 12:30 a.m., Francis Casier, owner of Casier Furniture, Inc. at 10 Bloomingdale Ave., and co-owner of the Casier Appliance store which was now engulfed by flames, arrived at the scene. After checking to make sure all people were out of the apartments above Ken's, which he rents, Casier organized a massive evacuation of the furniture inventory from his store. People from the crowd formed a "furniture brigade" passing items from person to person into the alley between the furniture store and the bowling alley, where they were loaded on trucks and taken to various warehouses in the village. In no time at all, the entire showroom was cleared. At approximately 1 a.m. the firemen seemed to have the blaze localized and under control.
The fire had been stopped from spreading into the furniture store by a self sealing fire door which worked perfectly, and only a smokey haze hung by the ceiling in The Store.
The appliance store and rear of Ken's had been conceded as unsaveable, and the firefighters poured thousands of gallons of water on the two badly burned buildings to check the fire there. The 75-foot snorkel shot three separate streams of water on the smoldering flames from above. Shortly before 2 a.m. Chief Nadon received a report that fire had broken out in the ceiling of The Store. Nadon sent men in with hoses and pike poles to stop any small fire that had started, the men went into The Store and hit the fire which had entered the building through ventilation ducts and was trapped in the false ceiling, smashing through the lower ceiling with the poles and hosing the flames when they, appeared.
In seconds the interior of the building had filled with smoke so thick the men had to retreat to the street.
They were then equipped with Scott Air Packs and sent back into the building. The air packs, designed to allow men to fight fires in bad smoke situations, proved useless, and once again the men returned to the street. By this time the fire had spread through the entire ceiling of The Store and flames were becoming, visible above the roof outside. Spectators, who had been unaware that the fire had spread to the discotheque, now averted; their gaze to that building, watching in astonishment as the entire establishment became engulfed in flames in a matter of minutes. The Lake Placid Fire Department which had been standing by at the firehouse, was called to the scene for mutual assistance and the Bloomingdale Fire Department took its place at the station. From 2 a.m. until 8 a.m., the two fire departments poured upwards of 800,000 gallons of water an hour on the blaze; which leveled The Store arid consumed the apartments above Ken's.
A small fire spread to the warehouse adjacent to The Store belonging to Thomas Brindis, and firemen quickly evacuated the Brindis's residence next to the warehouse. However, the blaze was checked before it could do any serious damage. The fire was finally brought under control shortly after dawn Saturday morning, although firemen continued pouring water on the smoldering buildings until noon. They were recalled to the scene, a number of times during the day.
Chief Nadon reported that the department did a commendable job in his estimation, and expressed gratitude for the assistance received from the Lake Placid and Bloomingdale Fire Departments. "It was a devil," Nadon said. "We poured enough water on that fire to float all of Saranac Lake to Plattsburgh."
He explained that the fire had been a difficult one to extinguish due mainly to lack of accessibility and all of the false ceilings. ''That fire got just in between the roof and ceiling, and we couldn't get at it in time,'' he stated.
Asked if he thought this was the worst fire in the village's history, Nadon said "The St. Regis was the worst — the whole " building was gone in less than three quarters of an hour -- but this was certainly the hardest to fight, and the costliest."
Initial damage estimates placed damage at more than $250,000. The Casier Appliance Store, Apartments and Ken's Bar, co-owned by Frank Casier and Marty Watson, represented a loss well over $100,000 in the owners' estimation.
Casier, who started a furniture business in town 30 years ago when he came to the area to cure for tuberculosis, declared everything but the furniture, store showroom a total loss. "The fire door saved that," he said, "but the furniture was completely lost as new merchandise." He said his insurance coverage will make. up approximately 25 per cent of the total loss.
In addition, Casier said he had no immediate plans for the destroyed buildings, except that they would be cleaned up "as soon as possible." "The furniture store," he said, "will be back in business next week. We just have to lick our wounds and carry on," he; concluded.
Ken Pickreign, proprietor of Ken's Bar, estimated his personal losses in the neighborhood of $20,000, which included renovations he had made to the bar, equipment, and stock.
Pickreign, who had moved back to Saranac Lake after a fifteen year absence, said he has "no plans for the future at the moment," but "Just hopes the insurance company will be fair" with him.
Richard Hunkins of Lake Placid, owner of The Store building was camping at the time of the fire and first heard about it on the radio. Contacted this morning, Hunkins said, ''I haven't been over to see it yet, but I am told it was total loss." He felt that $75,000 was a reasonable estimate of the building's value, and said his insurance policies would partially cover the loss.
In terms of the future, Hunkins promised, "it will be cleaned up as fast as possible," and he expects to restore it to "some commercial use;" "It is doubtful," he concluded, "that it will be rebuilt to run as a discotheque, however."
Jack Muldowney, who was employed as a bartender at The Store by managers of the discotheque, Mark Berkowitz and Ronald Renfro, said, last night that approximately $75,000 was lost in damages from the fire. He explained the estimate included equipment, renovations, and stock. The Store managers had recently installed a new slate floor, extensive kitchen facilities, and a new heating system, all at great expense and all of which was completely destroyed by the fire. Neither manager was available for comment themselves.
Dick Boyea, who owns the Saranac Lanes building, and who watched the fire with a great deal of concern for his establishment, commented that the local fire departments did "an excellent job in preventing the fire from spreading to the bowling alley and on to the Potter Block."
He said, "Everyone was fortunate that the bowling alley didn't catch fire. When they go, there's no stopping them. All of the lacquer finishes and cleaning chemicals create a fire so hot that it's impossible to fight up close."
Throughout the fire, Boyea had kept a force of employees on his roof to keep embers from starting small blazes.
The exact cause of the fire is as yet undetermined, and under investigation by both the fire department and BCI officials.
A reader writes:
This large building was a big draw to college students in the early 70s. For a coverage charge of $1, Friday and Saturday nights, students could listen and dance to live bands. They served large pitchers of beer. From my memory the bands were incredible and different each week. Specifically I remember a band out of Canada that looked and sounded just like Chicago. I would hoard my grocery money during the week so I would have the dollar to get in. If we didn't have the dollar we would hang around outside hoping someone we knew would be generous enough to pay our way.
