Valpo fire

[HC]

Downtown might look a but different if you are coming for e tourney. Big fire destroyed a building by Buffalo Wild Wings on Lincolnway.  You could smell it from my house several miles west of town when I left home this morning at 5:45.

[talksalot]

nwi.com has some good pictures.  Reports are one firefighter suffered smoke inhalation, no injuries.   

Jimmy's cafe was closed to day due to smoke; and they cut all of the power while working on it.   The walls were taken down as a precaution since the roof collapsed and they were unsteady.  Last major fire like this was about 15 years ago, the valentine's day fire at Lowenstines.  Let the reminiscing begin.

[valpopal]

Here is one of the photos I took this afternoon.

[valpotx]

Is that the building that has/had Pat's Parlor?

[historyman]

Is that the building that has/had Pat's Parlor?

No, it's the same side of the block as Pat's Ice Cream Parlor which is at Lincolnway and Morgan. This bujilding that burned was on the corner of Lincolnway and Michigan which is the other end of the same block as Pat's Ice cream Parlor but is west of Pat's Parlor. It was next door to a building that says Sievers Insurance but I was told that Sievers had moved out of that building so that building was vacant. Jimmy's Cafe is next to the building that burned on the side that faces Michigan. The building that burned is across Lincolnway from the Municipal parking lot that is attached to the parking lot for Around the Clock Restaurant. They had Lincolnway closed from the courthouse square going east to Morgan Street. So Pat's Parlor was one of the business affected by the closure of Lincolnway.

Luckily for Buffalo Wild Wings there is an alley between them and the building where Sievers Insurance used to be. So BWW was only effected by the closure of Lincolnway and as I understand it had no visible fire damage at all. I have no idea what kind of damage the Sievers Insurance building suffered but as you can see with the collapse of the building that burned you would think there had to damage to both the Siever building and Jimmy's Cafe because both those buildings were right next to the building that burned.

I was told there were 5 small businesses renting space in the building that burned including a barber and the committee in charge of the Popcorn Festival.

Tony's Pizza, the place that is famous for not taking credit cards, is also in that block between Pat's Parlor and the building that burned.

[historyman]

Here's a story from the Times about the fire with some more pictures and some raw video.

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/valparaiso/firefighters-continue-to-douse-hot-spots-after-blaze-destroyed-valpo/article_ad92a75e-2905-5fe6-9e5f-b7e00352b5d7.html

EDIT: From the raw video on the Times website I noticed that there is an alley behind the building that burned (204 Lincolnway) and Jimmy's Cafe. Jimmy's Cafe faces Michigan Street and not Lincolnway. So both of the videos are looking down Michigan Street towards Michigan's intersection with Lincolnway.

[vuweathernerd]

anita's alterations was one of those shops in the burned building. it was right across the alley that separated the building from jimmy's. had a few trips there to get uniforms altered while i was in rotc.

[agibson]

I was told there were 5 small businesses renting space in the building that burned including a barber and the committee in charge of the Popcorn Festival.

The Times claimed the barber shop had recently moved.  There was a bead shop in the building.

[okinawatyphoon]

With that part of the block clear now, it's the perfect place for some redevelopment. I'm hoping for a downtown hotel personally. 

[ValpoHoops]

With that part of the block clear now, it's the perfect place for some redevelopment. I'm hoping for a downtown hotel personally. 

If they touch Jimmy's, I'm going on a hunger strike.   

[historyman]

I ran into the lady that reported the smoke coming from the building and called 911. She is a route driver who delivers newspapers for the Times. So she was on her regular route when she reported the fire. She certainly was amused by the fact that the story in the Times said that the fire was reported by a "passerby" when that person was someone who worked for the Times. I believe Jimmy's Cafe and the person who owns the Siever Insurance building owe her a great deal of gratitude for taking the time to report it when she did. She said when she called it into 911 the dispatcher asked her to give an exact location she said that the guys at the Fire Station should look around the corner at all the smoke. The fire was at 204 Lincolnway which is across an alley from the Fire Station at 205 Indiana (at Indiana & Michigan, the next building down from Jimmy's Cafe).