Alert employees catch fire early at downtown Bend bike-ski shop housed in historic ‘Old Stone Church’

(Update: Adding video, Comments from Fire Marshall)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Thanks to alert employees, a fire was kept fairly small and quickly stopped Wednesday morning in a downtown Bend bike and ski shop housed in a more than century-old former church.

Bend Fire & Rescue crews responded shortly after 10 a.m. to the fire at WebCyclery and WebSkis at Franklin Avenue and Harriman Street. It's located in a unique building known as the "Old Stone Church," a Craftsman-style structure with Gothic and Tudor-style details, built for First Presbyterian Church in 1912.

Deputy Fire Marshal Dan Derlacki said the flames were first noticed in a ceiling light fixture. But the fire had spread to nearby stored goods by then. All employees and customers evacuated safely before fire crews arrived.

Crews found the attic space full of smoke when they arrived and stretched hoses into the building to extinguish the fire. Bend Fire's ladder truck set up and opened holes in the roof to allow smoke out of the attic to aid in extinguishing the fire. The fire was extinguished in approximately 30 minutes. 

The workers tried to put out the fire with an extinguisher while calling 911 to alert firefighters, Derlacki said. The fire official praised their actions, saying the call allowed firefighters to arrive on the scene much more quickly and keep it from spreading to other parts of the building.

"This is why we ask people to do when you're using a fire extinguisher, call 911. They attempted that extinguisher." said Derlacki" "They thought they had it out, but it came right back pretty quickly. So they were already on 911 when that second, when it came back up. And that communication flowed very quickly and allowed us to respond appropriately. "

But Derlacki said the fire burned in a storage area for inventory.

"With the smoke throughout the building, it did do a fair amount of damage to soft goods, such as all the clothing for sale," he said. "The damage to the building is minor when compared to the retail items." Holes were cut in the roof to vent the smoke in the attic.

Harriman Street was closed during the firefighting effort.

WebCyclery posted to social media a photo of the firefighters on the scene and said the business would be closed Wednesday, but to "look forward to a big fire sale in the near future!"

Fortunately, the damage was far less than from a blaze at the former church 33 years ago.

A February 1982 fire broke out during a Sunday afternoon service at what was then Cascade Christian Fellowship Church. All were evacuated and the fire was traced to combustibles too close to the chimney, causing $250,000 damage.

Here's the rest of the information Derlacki released Wednesday afternoon:

"Bend Fire & Rescue investigators determined the fire to have started when a fluorescent light fixture in the attic storage room failed. The light caught fire, and the flames then spread to adjacent boxes and stored goods in the space.

The quick actions of the staff by using an extinguisher while calling 911 at the same time prevented this fire from getting any worse.

Damage to the building is estimated to be about $25,000. The damage to the contents of the retail space is considered extensive due to the smoke from the fire.

Several dozen high-end mountain bikes were destroyed in the attic space due to catching fire. But there is a potential for all clothing and soft goods in the entire building to be considered a loss if they can’t be cleaned of the smoke. This damage could range from $100,000 to $500,000, depending on the extent of damage to the retail items and whether they can be restored for retail use again or not. The business is fully insured and the insurance company had been contacted by the time Bend Fire left the scene. 

Bend Fire & Rescue commends the actions of the staff of Web Cyclery for their quick actions in preventing this fire from getting any worse. They investigated the smell as soon as it was known. They used an extinguisher for what was a small fire to start off with.

But most importantly, they started evacuating the building and calling 911 at the same time another employee was using the extinguisher. These actions ensured everyone was out safe and the fire department was on its way in the event the extinguisher wasn’t enough, as it turned out to be.

"Bend Fire reminds anyone who uses a fire extinguisher on a fire to call 911 at the same time. If the extinguisher puts the fire out completely, the fire department can ensure the fire didn’t spread and help with the initial clean-up. If the extinguisher doesn’t put the fire out completely, we are on the way sooner than later to extinguish the fire completely."