Hotel / Restaurant, Restaurant Jackson, MI – Suspicious fire at downtown sports bar contained by sprinkler system October 27, 2016 viking210 Investigators are calling a fire that damaged Chase Sports Bar in downtown Jackson suspicious. The fire started Sunday night just after 9 p.m. then spread to the back of the building. “It was kinda like your worst nightmare,” said Owner Randy LeMaster. LeMaster was working at his other bar down Michigan Avenue when he got the call. “The back next to the walk-in freezer was all up in flames,” he said. Investigators say the fire started in a storage area outside the bar and just kept spreading. “It started to extend up the back side of the building which was a steel sided building. That presents its own problems because there are gaps between the steel and the brick behind it, so the fire mainly got into that gap space,” explained Deputy Fire Chief David Wooden with the Jackson County Fire Department. Flames even got into the air ducts, but firefighters say the damage stayed to a back bathroom and the kitchen thanks to a sprinkler that went off. Investigators say they’re treating the scene as suspicious. “When you have a fire that started outside of a building, you don’t have the amount of accidental causes that could have started the fire,” Wooden explained. Security cameras from both the bar and the apartment building next door could be key to helping investigators, they’re looking over all the video and hope it will show them just how the fire started. “We’re just hoping to see if there was anybody in the area to see if there’s something else we need to follow up on,” Wooden said. Jackson called in 3 other fire departments through mutual aid because the fire was at a commercial building and there was a high-rise retirement apartment building next door. About 30 residents were evacuated but the fire never spread to the inside of the apartment building. LeMaster says he’s just happy no one was injured. With significant smoke and water damage to the back of the building, he’s now focused on getting it repaired. But LeMaster is counting himself lucky since the flames didn’t spread to the main bar. Still with the holidays coming up, he can’t afford to be out of business. “I’ve got a crew lined up to move forward on getting things cleaned up,” he said. Chase will be closed for at least a month. LeMaster tells News 10 he has about 30 employees at that bar and he’s trying to keep them busy with cleanup or get them extra hours at his other bar.
