Here is what happened.

Recently the roof of the Wine Outlet caught fire and it was only luck that saved the building from burning to the ground.

Someone (no names here) was smoking a rack of lamb in his trusty smoker, which is kept on the roof deck of the store.  Seems that an ember from the pan that holds the wood chips escaped onto the wood decking.  It smoldered there for more than an hour sending faint whiffs of tar-like smells throughout the store.  Eventually the whiffs became stronger and I went upstairs to see what the source could be. The upstairs room (ex classroom/ someday loft apt.) was full of smoke and the loud pop and crack of a large fire was coming from the roof just outside the door.  As I stepped onto the roof I saw flames reaching 4 feet high covering about 50 square feet of the deck and spreading fast. Being the quick thinking level headed person that I am I immediately panicked.  Running downstairs I asked the customers in the store to call 911.  I then remembered I had a garden hose on the deck that I used to water plants.  I ran back up stairs and began dousing the growing fire with the garden hose until 2 fire trucks carrying 8 firefighters came screaming up to the building.

The wood decking that covers the roof was so dry that if the fire was left undiscovered for even a few more minutes it would have quickly consumed the entire roof and then the building.

Thankfully, no one was hurt.  However, the fire did burn a hole in the ceiling letting in smoke and all the water that put out the fire, which poured onto the wine displays below. The store smelled like a wet campfire until we had the whole place scrubbed from ceiling to floor.

For those who are wondering; the rack of lamb turned out very well but wasn’t worth all the effort.

Cheers,

Richard Kinssies