Irish pub lost in Hamilton Township fire

Trenton Times:

http://www.nj.com

HAMILTON -- An early-morning, two-alarm fire tore through Gallagher's Pub yesterday, gutting the popular Lalor Street watering hole that's been a neighborhood institution for more than 20 years.

"It's horrible, horrible," said bartender Robin Ski, as she gazed at the ruin of her former place of employment. "I've never seen anything like this."

Firefighters responding to the 5:20 a.m. blaze found the Irish pub completely engulfed in flames, after the fire quickly spread from the first floor to the rest of the building.

The fire was extinguished within 45 minutes, but not before the second floor partially collapsed into the first, requiring firefighters to shore up the building's unstable structure, Rusling Hose Chief Thomas Gribbin said.

Gribbin said that the cause of the fire was still unknown and under investigation yesterday, but did confirm that the blaze is not being considered suspicious at this point.

Owner Paula Womsetler and neighborhood residents and patrons said they were shocked at the destruction of the place that's always been right around the corner on Lalor Street.

"It's a neighborhood bar, like "Cheers,'" Womsetler said. "We know their drinks before we know their names."

Calling the pub her life, Womsetler said she had even recently renovated and redecorated the bar, and furnished the apartment on the second floor for her own personal use.

Business was so good, she said, that she had just hired three new employees the day before.

"I just never thought anything like this would happen to me," she said.

Womsetler said she initially brushed off a call from her alarm company, explaining that a possum had been breaking into the basement of the building at night and setting off the motion detectors.

"I thought, yeah, OK, it's the possum again," she said. "But when I got here it was closed off and flames were shooting up."

Ski called the fire "my worst nightmare come true."

"I'm just devastated for her (Womsetler)," she said. "Twenty years she's owned this place."

Although Womsetler vowed to rebuild the bar she's owned for more than 20 years, she said she remains shaken after seeing her livelihood reduced to rubble.

"I've survived three floods, and now a fire. What's next, locusts?" she asked.

In a strange parallel, another tavern burned down in nearby Millstone Township at almost exactly the same time Gallagher's caught fire.

State Police said the Clarksburg Inn was "severely burnt" after a fire started at the historic inn around 5:30 a.m. yesterday morning.

Although no one was injured, officials said the building was a total loss after the fire began in the western main foyer of the restaurant.

The cause of the fire is still undetermined pending further investigation, police said.