Crabby's Bar and Grill burns down
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By Barb Ickes | Tuesday, October 24, 2006 |
(Kevin E. Schmidt/QUAD-CITY TIMES) A firefighter battles a blaze today at Crabby's Bar and Grill in Coal Valley, Ill.
COAL VALLEY, Ill. — Nothing but the shell of a building remains where a longtime bar and restaurant stood along U.S. 6.
The owners of Crabby’s Bar and Grill, formerly The Fleetwood, had spent the past year investing thousands of dollars in renovations at their restaurant, which they frequently used as a place to host community fundraisers for people in need.
Kim Simon of Coal Valley said she was working the bar around lunchtime Monday when she smelled something “like when you light the wrong end of a cigarette.” She entered a back room and was met by a wall of black smoke.
“I started clearing the bar, telling everyone to get out,” she said.
By 1:30 p.m., a half-dozen fire departments were battling flames that shot through windows where neon beer signs hung an hour before.
Simon said roofers were working on the building earlier Monday. She said the entire building, which includes the bar, restaurant and a walk-in liquor store, was roofed over the summer and the job was being finished on a flat section of roof over the kitchen.
“I was told they took a propane torch off the roof,” she said. “The roofers tried to put the fire out with a garden hose and didn’t even tell us there was a fire.
“They put us needlessly in danger.”
She described her bosses, Crabby’s owners Lori and Bill Rotz, as “the biggest-hearted people I’ve ever known.”
She said the couple was
especially upset because the bar contained family memorabilia belonging to siblings who have died.
“Bill told me, ‘I guess I’ll start over and build it the way I wanted it,’ ” Simon said. “He told us to take the day off with pay and not to come in tomorrow.
“I imagine it’ll be awhile before we get called back,” she said. “I’m a single mother and I just bought my first house. My one-year anniversary here was Sept. 8 and I just loved it.
“The people who own this business are the best people I’ve ever worked for.”
Coal Valley volunteer firefighters were assisted by fire departments from the Quad-City Airport, the Rock Island Arsenal, Moline, Orion and Coyne Center, Ill.
David Dunham, the Coal Valley fire chief, confirmed the origin of the fire.
“It was accidental causes from roofers on the scene doing patch work and using a torch to heat the tar,” he said.
He said the building and its contents are a total loss, adding, “I can’t even fathom what this is going to run.
“This is why you should have licensed contractors working for you.”
Barb Ickes can be contacted at (563) 383-2316 or bickes@qctimes.com.
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