King's Restaurant fire update

Chris Davis, Pincher Creek Voice

The morning after: King's Restaurant, Main Street, Pincher Creek
C. Davis photo

King's Restaurant on Main Street Pincher Creek was damaged by fire late in the early morning of February 8 (click here for more details and video).

According to Kootenai Brown Pioneer Village Curator Farley S. Wuth, the building was constructed in 1925 by the Upton family as a general store and has served various purposes since then.  The Betterways grocery store moved to the structure in 1951, after the Scott Block fire of 1950 forced a relocation for it. Some local residents recall it as Shasta's in the late 1970's.  It became King's circa 1976.  It was mostly recently purchased by Chef and entrepreneur Andy Huang, on a rent-to-own basis, who moved to modernize its offerings with wi-fi and his own take on European and Cantonese cuisine.
 
At the scene of the fire Huang was at a loss to understand what had happened, and glad to have escaped physically unscathed.

Fire Chief Dave Cox said some of the approximately 17 firefighters and EMS members were on-scene until around 5:30 in the morning.  Due to the exhausting effort it took to completely douse the fire, frozen hoses, and with ice coating many surfaces of their equipment,  clean-up of the firefighting gear was not concluded until later in the day, around 10:30 am.

Cox said the metal roof on the structure helped contain the fire, and expressed surprise that the damage wasn't as bad as it could have been.  He said the fire was contained the roof area, and the effects below the ceiling in the restaurant proper had been limited to smoke and water damage. The top of the front exterior wall was also torn away in the firefighting effort.

Inspectors were to inspect the site yesterday, February 9, and appeared to be doing so in the early afternoon, before cleanup of the area could be undertaken.  The results of the insurance company's findings will probably be the deciding factor in the building's fate.  The cause of the fire is highly suspected to be an issue of electrical wiring, at the time of writing this, but that has not been confirmed by experts.