A South Bend business took on quite a bit of damage Wednesday after an early morning fire.
The blaze broke out at the Anchor Inn at 2224 Western Avenue just before 1:30. Firefighters say on their way to the fire they could see flames and smoke shooting from the building from blocks away.
Battalion Chief David Maenhout says multiple crews were called out to battle the blaze. Firefighters had to start from the outside because of how bad the flames were and because part of the building's roof had collapsed. AEP was also called out because of some power lines that came down in the blaze.
Fortunately no one was inside the building when the fire broke out.
"Nobody was hurt. They closed within an hour or and hour and a half before we got here," said Maenhout. "We've got firefighters on the scene determining who was last here but they were definitely open for business tonight."
Most of the damage happened in the back of the building. Maenhout says crews were able to knock down the fire near the middle of the building.
Western Avenue was shut down for a few hours while crews cleaned up.
This isn't the first unfortunate incident for the Anchor Inn this year. Last month a man died in a local hospital after being shot outside the bar. But Maenhout says he has "No reason to believe" the fire was related to the shooting.
