An early morning electrical fire in the basement of a theatre turned nightclub was detected by an alert employee while cleaning-up about 2:00AM Thursday, July 4th. A faulty power receptacle is thought to have been the starting point of the fire which caused more smoke damage than anything else.
“We had an electrical fire in our office basement that basically didn’t burn like flames of fire, but it had heat and just lots of smoke, and we had the whole place filled up with smoke,” said owner William Stace. Fortunately, no one was injured. The facility will be closed for business until further notice. According to Stace's employee, Aaron Ohlsson, the venue is critical to the Milwaukee music scene, and several live music acts that were scheduled for the weekend were looking for other places to perform.
The Miramar Theatre owner, Stace, said that although he was frustrated by the timing, he was glad that the damage was minimal. Smoke damage clean-up is estimated at around $6,300. Stace said that due to the 4-day holiday, his insurance agent was unavailable, and that cleaning crews could not start to abate the smoke damage until Monday at the earliest. Getting the place aired-out was the main priority. The acrid smell of smoke lingers in the theatre, and soot is everywhere. In retrospect, he says getting a few days to calm-down and rest will be OK.
Further news are available at:
www.wisn.com/fire-breaks-out-in-east-side-theater/-/9374034/20838884/-/e2oixs/-/index.html
and
www.fox6now.com/2013/07/04/100-year-old-miramar-theatre-suffers-fire-damage
“We had an electrical fire in our office basement that basically didn’t burn like flames of fire, but it had heat and just lots of smoke, and we had the whole place filled up with smoke,” said owner William Stace. Fortunately, no one was injured. The facility will be closed for business until further notice. According to Stace's employee, Aaron Ohlsson, the venue is critical to the Milwaukee music scene, and several live music acts that were scheduled for the weekend were looking for other places to perform.
The Miramar Theatre owner, Stace, said that although he was frustrated by the timing, he was glad that the damage was minimal. Smoke damage clean-up is estimated at around $6,300. Stace said that due to the 4-day holiday, his insurance agent was unavailable, and that cleaning crews could not start to abate the smoke damage until Monday at the earliest. Getting the place aired-out was the main priority. The acrid smell of smoke lingers in the theatre, and soot is everywhere. In retrospect, he says getting a few days to calm-down and rest will be OK.
Further news are available at:
www.wisn.com/fire-breaks-out-in-east-side-theater/-/9374034/20838884/-/e2oixs/-/index.html
and
www.fox6now.com/2013/07/04/100-year-old-miramar-theatre-suffers-fire-damage
Information about the venue can be found at: www.themiramartheatre.com
Side notes:
- Look carefully in the videos and you can see numerous code violations, so the fire trucks may return unless these issues are resolved.
- The comment about the whole place "filling up with smoke" is worthy of consideration. Remember that it was the rapid build-up of smoke at both The Station Night Club and the Kiss Nightclub in Brazil that resulted in numerous deaths.
I saw a lot of orange extension cords overhead and some potential ADA violations. That's my main beef with clubs. They install the cheapest things, and not even correctly. Theatres are not exempt from this either, but I see it a lot more in clubs.
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