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Fire strikes businesses in downtown Butler, damages print shop, brew pub

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Fire strikes businesses in downtown Butler, damages print shop, brew pub

A brew pub in the heart of downtown Butler suffered what its owner estimated Saturday as hundreds of thousands of dollars in smoke and water damage and might not reopen after a fire broke out earlier in the morning in a printing shop next door.

Reclamation Brewing, a father-and-son operation in business for about six years, was one of three business affected by the blaze, which erupted shortly after 8 a.m.

No one was injured.

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Also damaged by fire, smoke or water — or all three — were Sir Speedy, the printing shop, and a storefront for Edward Jones, the financial advisory service.

Ben Smith, the co-owner of Reclamation and also Butler's mayor, said the printing shop was a total loss.

"They'll have to take that building down,” Mr. Smith said in the afternoon, after the three-alarm blaze was brought under control. “They had to cut the roof open on our place to vent and make sure it didn’t spread further. Everything's all full of smoke, everything's wet, it's water damage like crazy. Pretty much everything in there’s gonna be a wash.”

Mr. Smith said he wasn't sure whether the buildings housing the businesses shared any common walls. The space rented by Reclamation is in a building that dates to at least the late 1800s, he said.

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He credited the Butler fire department and other volunteer companies that assisted with preventing the blaze from destroying the whole block, which is a stone's throw from the county courthouse.

Mr. Smith did not know anything about the cause of the fire but said it definitely started inside Sir Speedy. There is a space above the commercial tenants, but Mr. Smith said he did not believe it was occupied. He said he was unsure whether there were any apartments above any of the businesses.

After observing firsthand the damage to his brewery, Mr. Smith was left to contact his 15-or-so employees and give them the bad news. Under the state's COVID-19 regulations, he had been operating the bar and full kitchen at 50% capacity. They were still struggling because of the pandemic when the fire struck.

"From the initial walk through we did, there doesn't seem like there are a whole lot of things that are unaffected," Mr. Smith said. "Everything in here is sweat equity. We spent hours reclaiming old stuff, old barn wood."

Until a decision is made about Reclamation, Mr. Smith said he will nudge customers toward his nearby establishment, RB Cigar Bar and Speakeasy.

"It's not great," he said of the situation, "but at least everybody's safe."

Jonathan D. Silver: jsilver@post-gazette.com

First Published: January 30, 2021, 6:12 p.m.

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