Saturday, November 06, 1999
Fire ravages Florence eatery
Cause sought for Sporty's blaze
BY KRISTINA GOETZ
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FLORENCE — Fire broke out in a Florence restaurant during dinner rush hour Friday.
Firefighters from Florence, Union and Erlanger fought flames for more than two hours at Sporty's Bar and Grill on U.S. 42.
Heavy smoke drifted across Interstate 75 for hours.
“We checked because we could smell smoke,” said Shirley Ashbridge, one of the restaurant's cooks. “It smelled like a wood fire.
“We thought there was a car on fire. We went outside and we could see it at the bottom of the bushes at the end of the building.
“When we went back in, we saw smoke coming from the ceiling.”
When the fire started, about 40 or 50 customers were in the restaurant, which has been open a little more than a year. No one was injured.
“Everyone moved out in an orderly manner,” Ms. Ashbridge said.
Florence Fire Chief Tom Ollier said the fire may have started in the front wall of the building. He does not think the problem was electrical.
“It's about an 80 percent loss,” he said.
Firefighters tried to force their way into the building, but the fire had already moved to the roof when they arrived, so they had to use a hose and ladder.
Brian Jones, insurance agent for the restaurant, said the loss on the business itself — not including the building — could be more than $100,000.
“I'm just talking about their bar, tables, chairs, inventory, food, stock,” he said. “And who knows how much cash they've taken in today.”
Regular customers and employees stood around watching the home-cooking restaurant burn.
“It was just one big family, really,” said Stan Reis, kitchen manager. “He (owner) put in a lot of hard work and sweat to see it go in two hours.”
It was the second largest commercial fire in the city of Florence in the last month. Firefighters battled a blaze in mid-October in a building that had anchored Main Street for decades.
That building, owned by Ed Bessler since 1986, held the Garten Haus Restaurant, the Florence Barber Shop, a computer store and Bessler's Economy Market.
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