ThisWeek CW 12/11/2014

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2014/12/08/fire-aftermath-wigwam-museum-wont-reopen-for-2-3-months.html

Owner Mark Savino predicts it will be two or three months before he can reopen the Canal Wigwamrestaurant, 2 S. High St., which was heavily damaged in a Friday, Dec. 5 fire that also caused smoke damage to several other businesses.

“We’ve had a really fast response from our insurance company, which is good and appreciated. But even with that, the structural work needs done before we can do our work, so we’re probably two to three months out before we can reopen,” Savino said Monday, Dec. 8.

“We’ll keep people updated through our Facebook page as we are able to make progress on rebuilding. We’re just really thankful that no one got hurt, including the firefighters.”

He said he had just left the restaurant Dec. 5 when one of the Wigwam’s waitresses called to tell him smoke was “pouring out of the ceiling” and employees were evacuating the restaurant and calling 911.

“I ended up following the fire trucks back down Groveport Road to the fire,” Savino said. “We’ve got about 14 employees and we’ve had a few people contact us about possibly doing some fundraisers for the staff.

“We were planning for our staff holiday party on the 20th, so maybe something then, but whatever we pull together, we’ll post to our Facebook page.”

The Madison Township Fire Department led the 15-truck response to the fire, along with units from the Columbus, Bloom Carroll and Hamilton fire departments.

Madison Township Fire Chief Robert Bates said he was very proud of the team’s rapid response, and their ability to contain what otherwise could have been a devastating blaze.

“These guys did a heck of a job containing that fire to the void between the floors, given the age of that building and type of construction,” Bates said. “This could have easily gotten far worse.”

He said the fire was caused by an electrical failure. It was thanks to the skill of the responding firefighters that they were able to keep it from spreading into the Ed Jeffers Barber Museum on the second floor of the building, he said.

“Fortunately, there was only heat and smoke damage in the museum,” Bates said. “We didn’t have to put any water in there because of their skill containing the fire to the restaurant.”

However, the fire did cause structural damage that will keep the whole building closed until engineers can be called in to make repairs, Bates said. All of this has to happen before the Wigwam and the museum can be cleaned up and restored, he added.

“It will be very difficult to assign a dollar value to this fire, even though we contained it, just because of the amount of damage to those historical items,” Bates said.

Barber Museum Executive Director Mike Ippoliti said the museum, which suffered extensive smoke damage, would require a lot of work before it can reopen.

“Fortunately, there’s no fire or water damage to the museum pieces, but we’ll have to move everything out and have it all cleaned, and then clean out the space before we can even think about reopening,” he said.

Canal Winchester Mayor Michael Ebert said that besides the corner buildings which house Rex’s Barbershop and Cyndi Lynch Retirement Advisors, the Chase Bank building and Village Wines also are dealing with smoke damage.

“There’s the whole block worth of buildings that have fans set up and other things to try and get rid of the smoke,” Ebert said. “We had to move the children’s games out of the Chase Bank for the weekend’s Christmas in the Village events as well as move the Gingerbread House contest out of Cyndi’s business.”