Roaring Creek bar and restaurant goes up in flames

The Stars Restaurant and Bar in Roaring Creek Village went up in flames Sunday night. When fire officials arrived at the scene around ten-forty-five, they found the entire upper floor of the two storey wooden structure ablaze. The lower flat of the building was a popular bar and restaurant frequented by travelers on the Western Highway and operated by building owner, seventy-four year old Charles Garbutt. Garbutt told News Five that his son saw smoke coming from a window on the second floor. He says the upper flat was used primarily as a storage facility for lumber, steel, and equipment and had small rooms which were occupied by two friends. The rooms did not have electricity and Garbutt suspects that the fire may have been started by a candle left burning in one of them. No one was in the building at the time and Garbutt managed to save very little of the contents. The building is valued at one hundred fifty thousand dollars, the stored equipment is worth seventy-five thousand dollars, and the contents of the bar, ten thousand dollars. Neither the building nor contents were insured. Officials are still investigating the cause of the fire.