Fire burns more than pizza at Brewery

Fire broke out in the La Conner Brewery’s pizza oven around noon Saturday. Within minutes the La Conner Hook and Ladder Department were at the scene, entering the building from First Street and climbing on the roof from Second Street.

Fire Chief Josh Morrison said his crew had to “Figure out where the chimney was hot then we had to go to extinguish where it was hot. They were able to snuff out the fire from the top as well as the bottom of the chimney.”

Morrison reported “just minor damage, at the top of the chimney, that was repaired later that day.” He said the Brewery was closed Saturday but reopened on Sunday. There was no water damage, Morrison said. At 1:30 p.m. Saturday a single 2” by 4” less than a foot long was in a small pile of materials at the curb in front of the Brewery.

Morrison complimented his volunteer firefighters: “Everyone responded and did exactly what they were trained to do and everything worked out according to plan.” He noted that Doug Alvord, a co-owner, has an impeccable maintenance record and “does above and beyond what was requested of them with the oven and chimney set up.” Alvord told him that he would investigate a different method of cooking.

Morrison said that the Department had been called “a couple of times in the past” for chimney fires there, but not since he had become fire chief in 2015.

First Street between Morris and Washington was closed for at least a couple of hours.