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At 4:30am on Tuesday morning, October 30, 2007, the custodian arrived to clean the Southland building. Upon arrival, he noticed smoke on the concourse and walked down the concourse toward lane 1 and opened the door to the mechanical room where flames were engulfing the entire room. The fire department was called and the fire was extinguished by 6am.
The damage was unclear at the time, so the company generally agreed the closing of the business would be 1 day. Since the fire occurred in the mechanical room, it affected all the electrical controls to power the pinsetters, several outlets and the HVAC system. The phone system was destroyed during the fire as well.
An environmental company was called in to remove all smoke smell from building and wipe down all soot from furniture and concourse area.
Crews are working hard to restore these things so the bowling center can be open for business as soon as possible. Currently, with everyone working to restore electric, phone services, and Heating & Air, the estimated time to re-open is FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16.
The heat from the fire melted all wires in conduit which caused electrical problems throughout the building. New conduit and wiring had to be installed as well as panel boxes. All wiring had to be re-traced back to their sources, and new phone lines had to be rebuilt. Timers are being installed on parking lot lights. A Brunswick technician was called in to make repairs to back office computer and repair several PC Boards that controlled individual scoring units on the lanes that shorted out during the fire.
New HVAC units had to be installed to replace the old gas/steam boiler system. A duct cleaning service was called in to vacuum out and clean all existing ducts throughout the building.
New ceiling tiles are being installed on concourse and over the bowling lanes to replace the smoke-stained tiles. This process takes several days which was the main reason for the extra week of downtime.
If you have a league bowling scheduled during this “downtime”, we will be contacting you to relocate your league and bowl at Eastland or reschedule for a later date.
To find out more, check this website for future updates. You can reach Eastland Lanes, 859-252-3429 or Southland Lanes 859-277-5746 (limited time while repairs are being made).