TOLEDO, Ohio — The owner of downtown Toledo's Blarney Irish Pub is thankful a fire Thursday afternoon in the building the restaurant sits next to did not damage the local St. Patrick's Day staple.
Toledo Fire & Rescue Department crews responded to the Blarney Event Center shortly after 3:30 p.m., which is located right beside the pub. Managing Partner Bill Cline said most of the damage was done to vacant upstairs areas.
Cline said it shouldn't affect the business and the owners reopened the restaurant after crews were done. The pub was evacuated due to the fire.
But at first, people didn't know what was next with the restaurant, including the workers.
"Didn't work yesterday, came back today to 13-15 fire trucks, so it's kind of emotional," said Donnell Hayes, a cook at the pub.
He was on his way to work with his cousin when "next thing you know, we saw smoke coming out of the other part of the building and my cousin said to me 'there was a fire.' I was like 'that's the building next to us,'" Hayes said.
While crews were cleaning up the fire, Hayes was waiting with his cousin to see if they would be working that day.
While Hayes was waiting, his boss, Cline, was assessing the situation.
Cline, who was there when the fire happened, said it came from a paper fire on the third floor of the event center.
"Kitchen manager came back and he said he thinks there's smoke, and I came back in the kitchen and went down into the event center and saw a bunch of smoke coming out of the elevator shaft," Cline said.
He called 911 and evacuated everyone safely.
"It was 45 seconds after I called 911 and [TFRD] was here. It was great," Cline said.
He's not sure what caused the paper fire, but most of the damage was on the third floor.
"There's water damage coming through, but as far as the Blarney is concerned, we're back open," he said.
As for Hayes and his cousin, they went back to work. St. Partick's Day is in a few weeks and the Blarney has a big event every year. Cline said this year is still a go.
"What happened won't affect what's going to happen in a couple of weeks when we have thousands of people down here hanging out on [March 17] enjoying St. Patrick's Day," Cline said.
He said the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department approved the Blarney to open back up following the fire. As for the event center, Cline said it should be open next weekend and no events should be affected.
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