Electrical fire guts Pizza Hut

By Allison Brophy Champion

Published: August 8, 2008

Pizza Hut on North Main Street suffered extensive damage in an apparent electrical fire Friday just after 7 a.m.

The eatery was closed at the time of the fire and no injuries were reported. More than a dozen firefighters from various local companies worked to put out the blaze, which sent smoke billowing throughout downtown.

Willie Glascock, assistant chief at Culpeper Volunteer Fire Company 1, was among the first crew into the burning building.

“It was so dense, black smoke to the ground,” he said. “The visibility was zero.”

Glascock said entry was made about six to eight feet into the restaurant.

“The fire was in the left area, near the kitchen,” he said.

Glascock said the crew had the blaze extinguished in about 10 minutes.

Culpeper Police Lt. Chris Settle said the probable cause of the fire was electrical and that it started in an area where electrical work was recently done.

Local firefighters remained on the scene for more than three hours to combat embers and hot spots in the ceiling.

At one point, a three-man crew from Brandy Station Volunteer Fire Company 2 climbed on the red roof above the kitchen at the back of Pizza Hut with an electric saw.

The crew cut a panel from the roof to let smoke and heat out, Jesse Powell with Company 1 said. He said the inside of the building incurred “a lot of damage.” The building is still standing though most of the windows were busted out.

North Main Street on both ends was totally blocked to traffic for hours during the peak Friday morning rush. Two large hoses lay in the street, pumping water from hydrants at the corner of Sycamore Street and in front of Ferguson Enterprises.

Next door at Wendy’s, where the power was out due to the fire, Pizza Hut employees talked with police. A man who identified himself as Pizza Hut owner, Tony, refused comment to the Star-Exponent.

According to the town’s online mapping system, Pizza Hut of America of Louisville, Ky. owns the Pizza Hut at 876 N. Main St. in Culpeper.

Calls to the company’s public relations office Friday were not returned.

Across the street at McDonald’s a small crowd gathered to watch the fire.

“We’ll get a new Pizza Hut now, won’t we?” one man was overheard saying.

“About time, ain’t it?”

Plans for a new Pizza Hut were in fact brought before town planners several years ago, but the plan never materialized.

“They do have an approved site plan,” said Marlys Houston with the town planning office. “We have everything we need for them to get started on a new Pizza Hut if they should chose to do so.”

The Pizza Hut plan, approved three years ago this month, called for a brand new and more modern building that would have included a Wing Street - a buffalo wings joint. An earlier redesign from 2001 failed to earn planning commission approval because they felt it looked “too boxy.”

Culpeper Police were on the scene of the Pizza Hut fire Friday morning, providing traffic control and security. Police are also “documenting the scene,” said town spokeman Wally Bunker.

An investigation into what started the fire is ongoing, he said.

Allison Brophy Champion can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 101 or