Raging Blaze Leaves Well-Known Newtown Building in Shambles, Many Local Departments Fight Fire

A devastating structure fire has left one of the local area's most well-known establishments in complete wreckage after multiple departments joined together to battle the blaze.

According to Newtown Hook & Ladder, all five fire departments in Newtown rushed to the scene after being dispatched to an active fire at the currently vacant 130 Mt. Pleasant Road property just before 9:30 AM on Friday (Jan. 14).

With the Hawleyville Volunteer Fire Company being first to the scene due to their proximity within the town, the building, formerly home to the immensely popular Hot Shots II and, most recently, McGuire's Ale House, was fully engulfed by the time first responders arrived, local fire authorities said.

Immediately upon arrival, the Newtown Hook & Ladder 114 reportedly brought in a 2-inch attack line, another term for a huge fire hose, via Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue’s Engine 441.

While the local firefighters began to make a push toward the building amidst battling the massive blaze, the roof above the bar area reportedly collapsed, and at that point, due to the exorbitant amount of damage, the fire crews switched up their approach by utilizing Ladder 114's elevated master stream, which allowed for firefighters to attack the fire from a higher elevation.

From there, once the massive fire was knocked down to the ground level, the Hawleyville VFC reports that an excavator was called in to further assist with extinguishing the fire completely.

Even though all of Newtown's fire departments were actively working to bust down the fire at the once-popular gathering place, crews from both the Brookfield Volunteer Fire Company and Stony Hill Volunteer Fire Company, as well as emergency personnel from throughout the greater Danbury area were also called in to assist.

As someone who has many wonderful memories of nights full of live music, delicious food, and celebrating with loved ones within the various iterations of that building, it's tremendously heartbreaking to see it burning the way it was, and I know so many others here in our community feel the same way.

Many thanks to the listeners and readers who reached out to us for information regarding this situation, and hopefully, we'll see this iconic building brought back to life very soon.

Here's a look at some photos during the time that the fire crews were battling the blaze, courtesy of the Hawleyville Volunteer Fire Department: