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Early morning fire damages business in Uptown Butte

Posted at 3:06 PM, Jan 24, 2020
and last updated 2020-01-24 17:06:18-05

An early morning fire ravaged an historic building in Uptown Butte that was home to three businesses.

“The flames when we got here were on the northeast corner of the building, the second floor and there was a lot of fire present, so it had had a pretty good head start,” said Butte Fire Chief Jeff Miller.

Firefighters responded about 2:45 in the morning to find the upper floor of the Irish Times building at Main and Galena engulfed in flames. Firefighters first tried to attack the fire from inside the building.

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“Just way too much fire, too much of a head start the fire had, you know, it was just too dangerous to be in there, so we backed out and pretty much been a defensive operation where we fought the fire from the outside,” said Miller.

The building is home to the Muddy Creek Brewery and The Post bar on the top floor, and The Times bar on the bottom floor. Uptop Clothing located just to the south of the fire suffered water damage.

“You hate to see it, three businesses in this building, and then there was a local clothing company had their inventory to the south, so it’s a considerable loss,” said Miller.

No injuries were reported in the fire and the cause is still under investigation. Butte’s Community Development Department has reached out to the business owners and said the city is ready to help them out however it can.