Delavan, Wisconsin

Eight firefighters reported injured in Town of Delavan fire


March 5, 2010 6:40 p.m.

Eight firefighters were injured Friday while battling a massive fire at a bar and restaurant in the Town of Delavan.

The injuries happened at a blaze that destroyed Mulligan's Sports Bar & Grill, said Gerald Edwards, chief of the town's volunteer Fire Department.

Edwards said several of the injuries, but not all, happened when an elevated platform that firefighters were using to pour water on the fire from above swung into some power lines that had been obscured by thick smoke, and several firefighters in contact with the platform were shocked.

None of the injuries was life-threatening, Edwards said, but at least two firefighters remained hospitalized Friday evening.

It started as a grease fire in the restaurant's kitchen about 1:30 p.m., according to a report in the online version of the Janesville Gazette.

The restaurant, on the east end of Delavan Lake on Highway 50, had been open since 11 a.m. and a couple of customers were in the dining room at the time, the Web site quoted the bartender as saying. There also were several people in an upstairs apartment, but they got out safely, the site reported.

Despite being a few yards from the Delavan Lake Inlet, water had to be trucked in because the lake was frozen, the Gazette said.

Edwards said the department was planning a debriefing for firefighters with a minister Monday.