A well-known Carrollton eating and drinking establishment burned overnight.
Carrollton Fire Protection District Chief Tim Thaxton says that the Oasis Bar and Grill is a total loss after a fire consumed the building last night.
Fire departments from Carrollton, Greenfield, Roodhouse, White Hall, and Jerseyville responded to The Oasis at approximately 11:45 pm and battled an intense blaze throughout the night. Upon arrival to the scene, the building was fully engulfed. Fire could be seen through the roof at the rear of the building in several areas.
Thaxton says things were bad from the start when the first units arrived on scene. “The first truck arrived in and they said the whole back half of the roof was fully involved with flames shooting up. There have been several pictures floating around and the flames were really looking pretty high. It was up into the attic space above the ceiling and below the roof, and it just went from one end of the building to the other before we could really get any stop made on it.“
We spent most of the night hitting hot spots and fighting the fire back off in these lower eaves. The roof collapsed in on the ceiling so we had that pancake in there and fire between them. We’ve been fighting on that all night long.”
Firefighters remained on the scene throughout the night and into this morning suppressing hot spots. The nearby Sierra Motel escaped damage. According to Thaxton, suppression efforts during high winds were able to save the neighboring business from any fire damages. Thaxton said while on scene that it was too early to determine the origin of the fire. he says due to the high amount of the loss, the Office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal has been called in to conduct an investigation.
Ben Cox also contributed to this story.