Arson not cause of restaurant fire
By Tom Spalding
tom.spalding@indystar.com
The Indianapolis Fire Department investigators today have ruled out arson as a cause of a a blaze that consumed Texas Roadhouse on Monday.
While investigators returned to Eastside restaurant today to try and determine the origin and cause, Unit Commander Cliff Johnson said that they do not believe it was arson.
Compiled by Star reporter Tom Spalding
When Indianapolis firefighters responded to an Eastside restaurant blaze, they were confronted with not one, not two, but three frozen fire hydrants.
As firefighters searched for a working hydrant -- and precious time ticked away -- the Texas Roadhouse building burned to the ground early Monday.
All of which raises troubling questions: With temperatures hovering in the teens through the end of the week, just how many of the city's hydrants are filled with frozen water?
And what is being done -- or even can be done -- to keep what one water official called a serious threat to the public from happening again?
The answers Monday seemed equally troubling. The city doesn't know for sure how many of its hydrants are operable at any given time, and when frozen water is the issue, most often firefighters have no clue until they arrive on the scene.
Veolia Water spokesman Paul Whitmore said it takes the company's 20 inspectors eight to nine months to check all hydrants -- 36,000 in Indianapolis and some surrounding communities -- and it's not practical to rush out and inspect each one.
Veolia manages and is responsible for maintaining and inspecting the hydrants on the Indianapolis Water system.
Veolia will inspect the three hydrants near the steakhouse, in the area around 14th Street and Shadeland Avenue on the Eastside. Whitmore said there was evidence that one of the hydrants had been opened and then not shut properly.
The city tries to keep track of inoperable hydrants. Currently, 100 are out of service for various reasons: broken seals or couplings and damage from vehicles.
But none of the three frozen hydrants was on the list. Officials acknowledge they don't know how many hydrants are frozen and likely wouldn't find out until firefighters try to turn them on.
"The first arriving companies on the scene were just heartbroken," said Indianapolis Fire Department spokeswoman Capt. Rita Reith. "They were truly sorry it (the blaze) got going ahead of them. To have three frozen hydrants in a row, it was like, 'You've got to be kidding me.' "
With temperatures hovering around 15 degrees, the firefighters searched futilely for a working hydrant while draining six 500-gallon tanks in their rescue vehicles.
Typically, such tanks would be enough to deal with a house fire, Reith said, but not a large commercial structure fire.
She said firefighters think the restaurant building might have been saved if a working hydrant was closer.
Fire officials, who less than an hour before had no problems using two other hydrants at a nearby small motel fire, weren't certain of the cause of the Texas Roadhouse blaze.
Travis Doster, spokesman for the Louisville, Ky.-based restaurant chain, said he didn't have enough specifics to comment on the hydrant issue but said he wishes that fire officials "have the tools they need to fight something like this."
The company plans to rebuild, and Doster said the 135 full- and part-time employees who worked at the steakhouse, 1405 N. Shadeland Ave., will be temporarily reassigned and continue to receive paychecks.
The building was declared a total loss with $1.5 million in damage, restaurant executive Steve Sargent told firefighters. Texas Roadhouse has been on the site since replacing another restaurant there in 1998 and is important to the commercial corridor, said City-County Councilman Ben Hunter.
"It's vitally important that business recover and build," he said. "The Eastside can't continue to lose business."
The restaurant had closed at 10 p.m. Sunday, with the last employee leaving at 11 p.m. Authorities first got wind of trouble when a burglar alarm sounded at 12:37 a.m. Upon investigation, police reported smoke coming from the roof; firefighters were dispatched at 12:42 a.m. and arrived four minutes later. By that time, heavy smoke and fire were billowing out of the rear of the building.
Matt Jewell of KMP Hydrants, which has a contract to inspect and maintain city of Lawrence-owned fire hydrants, said even in cold weather, hydrants should work.
"If they have their hydrants taken care of, they shouldn't worry about it," Jewell said. "Hydrants are man-made . . . If you don't get them grease and exercise the parts, they'll let you down."
Reith said it appeared that one of the three frozen hydrants had not been shut off all the way by the last person who used it.
"This could have been someone," Reith said, "such as a contractor, a pool business, landscaper" who can legally obtain water from it.
"When the hydrant was inspected this morning after the fire, there was ice protruding from the openings."
Although some people are authorized to use water in hydrants, Whitmore urged residents to call the water company if they see one in use by anyone other than the Fire Department.
"We need people to help us be eyes and ears if they see something going on with hydrants," Whitmore said.
The fire sparked reminders of a similar incident in Shelbyville in February 2007, when a frozen hydrant delayed efforts to put out the Knauf Insulation blaze.
Indiana has no state law to mandate testing of hydrants. The American Water Works Association, a trade group, suggests tests at least once a year. Most hydrants in Indiana are tested once a year either by fire department personnel, water companies or private contractors.
Additional Facts Hydrant facts» How many? Indianapolis Water Co. keeps a database of 36,000 aqua-colored hydrants in the city and in some communities in adjacent counties. The utility is responsible for their condition and repair.
» Have a problem? Contact Indianapolis Water at www. indianapoliswater.com or at (317) 631-1431. The Veolia Water 24-hour hotline is (317) 263-6332.
» What happens after one is used? Every time a hydrant is used, it is reported to the water company so that it can be checked, drained and then fully turned off.
» Where are they? Typically hydrants are spaced 500 feet apart (residential or commercial); however, in the Downtown Indianapolis area, they are closer and there are more of them.
