Catfish Corner Fire
By: KLST News
Updated: February 21, 2013
Fire fighters worked throughout the night and into Thursday to extinguish a blaze that burned through the Catfish Corner restaurant on West Beauregard Wednesday afternoon.
Fire Marshal Ross Coleman said an electrical fire began in the attic near the kitchen around 3:15 P.M.. The contents of the building and the high winds caused the fire to spread quickly throughout the rest of the building.
"We had a lot of wind yesterday, gusting up in the 20 mph range," Marshal said, "so we had a lot of smoke carry that fire from the southeast to the northwest. We had large, extensive damage from heat and smoke throughout the building."
Fire Marshal Coleman said the wood interior finish of the building, along with the flammable contents in the kitchen area, were the causes for the fire's growth in size and intensity
"We had a lot of combustible contents, as well we had the grease in the kitchen, and then we had compounding all of those things, we had the heavy winds," Coleman said, "so once the fire started to breach the attic and started to release all of that smoke and the wind really pushed through and increased that oxygen load and exacerbated our fire and made it a whole lot more intense."
The owner of the Catfish Corner, Marvin Morris, was in disbelief after seeing the aftermath of the fire.
"I'm pretty overwhelmed right now. It's pretty hard to deal with," Morris said, "we've been in business for over 23 years and right here during lent, it's a hard time of the year. I'm just very thankful no one was hurt. We're real thankful for that."
Morris said that they will rebuild and another Catfish Corner will be in San Angelo soon.
"We will be back, we appreciate all of our patrons and yeah, we'll be back."
The fire marshals office are curently conducting an investigation of the origin and cause of the fire.
Fire Marshal Ross Coleman said an electrical fire began in the attic near the kitchen around 3:15 P.M.. The contents of the building and the high winds caused the fire to spread quickly throughout the rest of the building.
"We had a lot of wind yesterday, gusting up in the 20 mph range," Marshal said, "so we had a lot of smoke carry that fire from the southeast to the northwest. We had large, extensive damage from heat and smoke throughout the building."
Fire Marshal Coleman said the wood interior finish of the building, along with the flammable contents in the kitchen area, were the causes for the fire's growth in size and intensity
"We had a lot of combustible contents, as well we had the grease in the kitchen, and then we had compounding all of those things, we had the heavy winds," Coleman said, "so once the fire started to breach the attic and started to release all of that smoke and the wind really pushed through and increased that oxygen load and exacerbated our fire and made it a whole lot more intense."
The owner of the Catfish Corner, Marvin Morris, was in disbelief after seeing the aftermath of the fire.
"I'm pretty overwhelmed right now. It's pretty hard to deal with," Morris said, "we've been in business for over 23 years and right here during lent, it's a hard time of the year. I'm just very thankful no one was hurt. We're real thankful for that."
Morris said that they will rebuild and another Catfish Corner will be in San Angelo soon.
"We will be back, we appreciate all of our patrons and yeah, we'll be back."
The fire marshals office are curently conducting an investigation of the origin and cause of the fire.
