The
Nevada City Fire
A Photo Essay
Please click on the frog to enter the
photo gallery. © 2001 Bob Lickter
by Don Baumgart
NEVADA CITY - Residents here were awakened Wednesday morning by an annual
Gold Rush town event that hasn't happened since World War II.
A three-alarm fire consumed the historic building at the corner of Pine and
Commercial streets that housed Friar Tuck's restaurant and bar. The building
was built in 1912. Restaurant owner Greg Cook told reporters he has been in
business at that location for 30 years.
Twenty fire engines from three counties and more than 100 firefighters responded to the blaze, which was reported at 4:16 a.m. Big yellow water
hoses filled the shut-down streets all morning as most commerce came to a halt. Water was poured down into the smoking building from high extension
ladders well into the day. So far no cause for the fire has been identified.
Still at doubt by mid day was the stability of the brick walls. "It's just a
matter of deciding when to bring it down," one city official said.
The Nevada County Probation Department had been occupying the second floor
of the corner building, the former home of the Elks Lodge. Those quarters also were destroyed. County Supervisor Peter Van Zant told the Messenger
that no crucial probation department records were lost. Those records are stored on a computer server at the Rood Government Center.
"Our main focus, starting right now, is to find new quarters for the
department. We'll be looking for space, desks, and phones." Three agencies began investigating the fire while smoke still poured from
the building, California Department of Forestry, State Fire Marshall, and
the federal Department of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. Speculation was rampant among onlookers as to why ATF was involving itself
in the investigation. The official reason given was, "ATF investigates all
fires in bars." Doubtful. Another theory was that the probation people all
carried sidearms in the office and ammunition was stored in the second-floor
office. Possible. ATF investigates all commercial building fires. Ridiculous.
A white ATF truck pulled up and I asked the uniformed driver why they were
here. He declined to comment. I asked him if ATF investigates all bar fires
and again he declined to comment. As I walked past the white ATF van I saw
in big blue letters across the back: EXPLOSIVES INVESTIGATION. Also destroyed in the blaze were the Herb Shop next door to Friar Tuck's and
the Off Broad Street theater behind the restaurant. Nancy Bouffiou had been operating the deli in the Herb Shop for only a few
months. She and friend Matthew Meek were standing on Broad Street holding the Herb Shop sign they had saved from the flames. "I talked one of the
firemen into grabbing the sign off the street for me. So at least I have something.
"It's really a heartbreaker. We just got started. I bought the deli in November."
Then she mentioned another recent fire at the restaurant. "They had a little fire at Tuck's on Monday," Bouffiou said. "I was told it
was in the laundry room." John Driscoll and his wife own Off Broad Street theater located behind the
restaurant on Commercial Street. They're two weeks into the run of a play scheduled to last for another two months.
"We have thousands of dollars of prepaid seats we have to honor," Driscoll
said. He plans to open the production in another location within two weeks,
depending on how much theater property is still usable. "Obviously the building's going to be condemned, so we won't be back in there. It'll
probably be two years before the thing's rebuilt." He's already had two offers of temporary performing space.
And, in true Nevada City style, the usual regulars sat at the bar in the Mineshaft, watching it all on CNN.
