Irish Eyes looks to rise from the ashes

As hundreds of onlookers clustered along the west bank of the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal watching firefighters work to extinguish the New Year’s Eve afternoon flames, Jim Kiernan, restaurant co-owner, received the news in a phone call as he sat in a North Carolina restaurant.

“I’ll probably cry next week, but my feelings now are that we’ve gotta roll up our sleeves and do something about it,” Kiernan said late last week.

He said early indications point to a carelessly discarded cigarette that torched landscaping mulch that was blown beneath the building, setting it on fire.

“The good thing is that it didn’t happen 10 hours later. Who would have been paying attention outside at midnight when we would have had 300 people inside the building?” Kiernan said.

He said if the building had been full of New Year’s revelers, an evacuation would have been more complicated because flames engulfed the front entrance.

Kiernan said although windproof ashtrays were available for customers who stepped outside for a cigarette, many people don’t use them, and instead carelessly dispose of smoking material.

“It likely dropped into the mulch and with the wind blowing it just created a flame,” Kiernan said, adding that the state fire marshal would make the final determination of cause.

Sustained winds of 50 mph, with gusts of up to 70 mph, made it tough for firefighters to battle the blaze.

Henry Baynum, Lewes Fire Department assistant chief, said getting to the fire was also a problem.

“Access had to be made everywhere,” he said. Baynum said the restaurant’s deck, loading dock and block masonry walls were barriers to getting beneath the building.

Kiernan said there are no gas or electric service utilities in the area where the fire is thought to have started.

He said an insurance adjuster and structural engineer have inspected the building, and a report on whether what remains is salvageable or must be demolished could come out this week.

“If there’s anything left that could be usable it would obviously make rebuilding easier. But we don’t know yet,” Kiernan said.

He said fire had destroyed the building’s undercarriage, which caused the first floor to collapse. Baynum said the second-floor sags about six feet.

An automatic fire sprinkling system covered the entire building except the area where the fire is believed to have started.

Kiernan said the company that installed the sprinkler system never offered an option to install sprinklers underneath the building.

He said he’s mad because the sprinkler company charged a substantial amount of money to install a special pump to increase sprinkler-system water pressure, but never mentioned that for an additional $3,000 the system could be expanded to cover beneath the building.

“If we’d known that was available we would have done it. We didn’t cut any corners on that building,” Kiernan said.

J.B. Walsh’s Anglers Restaurant Inc. owns the building, which Irish Eyes leases. A decision on whether to rebuild – and how to go about it – would be made jointly by Anglers and Irish Eyes.

Kiernan said several parties had been planned for later in the day and New Year’s evening. The restaurant was to host a 2 to 5 p.m. wedding party for more than 50 people traveling to Lewes from several states.

The restaurant’s second-floor banquet room had been reserved for a 7 p.m. private buffet dinner to be followed by a 9 p.m. open-to-the-public New Year’s Eve celebration, in addition to the restaurant’s regular dining, live band and bar service on the ground floor.

Kiernan said the restaurant also had events booked for several months to come.

But, said Kiernan, he’s most thankful that no one – neither customers nor firefighters – was seriously injured.

“Our staff did a great job of getting the building calmly evacuated. We had a lot of people in for lunch at the time,” Kiernan said.

Irish Eyes has a loyal customer following, many of whom called restaurant owners after the fire.

“They’re just in shock, truly in shock. They just can’t imagine that this has happened to us and all of our staff again,” said Kathy Newcomb, a restaurant co-owner.

Kiernan said restaurant owners have turned their immediate concerns to employees.

“How do we keep 47 families from sustaining a greater hit than we’ve taken?” he said.

Kiernan said in days ahead he and his partners would look for answers.