A blaze on Friday morning destroyed Dan’s Bar-B-Que Pit restaurant, a Route 66 stalwart in Davenport, Oklahoma, for almost 50 years.
KFOR-TV in nearby Oklahoma City reported the fire started about 10 a.m.:
When firefighters arrived, they said the flames had already spread to the building’s ceiling and were moving quickly.
“It just moved so fast,” said Lincoln County Emergency Management Director Brandon Morgan. “There was no stopping it. It got to the ceiling and it just took off and we just couldn’t make access to it.” […]
Investigators believe the fire originated in the restaurant’s smoker room but they are still working to figure out exactly what caused the fire.
Though employees were inside at the time the fire began, they were safely evacuated. No injuries were reported.
A video report from KFOR:
The Oklahoma Route 66 Association weighed in on the tragedy:
It is unclear whether the restaurant will reopen. It did not reply to questions posed through its Facebook page.
Here’s what the restaurant looked like in 2002:
John Vandever said his family bought the restaurant from its previous owners in 1980. Dan Thompson had started the restaurant during the 1970s.
(Video-capture image from KFOR-TV of the Dan’s Bar-B-Que Pit fire on Friday; image of the Dan’s Bar-B-Que Pit in Davenport, Oklahoma, by Jamie via Flickr)
No doubt yet another case of having no fire suppression system or fire alarms.. And at 10 am with staff on the premises. Not a single fire extinguisher either? With all the safety requirements these days in work places, why none where there is a constant risk of fire?