By: Clay LePard
clepard@cbs4qc.com
The Eldridge community will be picking up the pieces today after a fire destroys a local hotspot.
The fire at Del's started just before 8:30 a.m. Thursday morning, and soon smoke could be seen for miles.
Fire departments from all over the area came to help, and it took firefighters several hours to put the blaze out.
Luckily, the flames did not spread to the post office next door, but it did suffer a few cracked windows.
Local residents are flooded with memories of Del's, and say that Eldridge won't be the same without it.
"I have lots of memories growing up," says Abby Hardy. "We've had wedding receptions right here; my sister got married there. We used to go there every night for Taco Tuesday, Monday night burger baskets. We went there every night growing up."
Investigators are still trying to figure out what caused the fire and clean-up will continue in the upcoming days.
But the fire at Del's also hurt neighboring businesses.
Smoke could be seen for miles Thursday morning as emergency crews battled flames at the popular pub and the fire was so massive, traffic was completely blocked off in the surrounding area.
Just a few hundred feet from the badly burning building, workers at the Junk Asylum antique mall felt a big impact from the fire.
"We had no power at first and there was a lot of smoke so we couldn't open up right away so we waited a couple hours and when the smoke cleared we were able to open," said Melissa Gheer, employee at Junk Asylum Antique Mall. Even though the doors were open, workers told us road blocks kept customers away.
"No traffic at all, customers can still get here they'll let you in if you stop and asked but otherwise it's been real slow," said Gheer.
But they said it could have been worse and are happy no one was hurt. Fire crews worked well into the late afternoon checking for hot spots and sifting through rubble, while the community collected memories of their beloved Del's.
"It's huge because it is a small town and they have a lot of business there and they do a lot of lunch and had the banquet area for receptions so it'll be a big loss to the community," said Gheer.
"It's actually really special to me because I had my reception here so I have a lot of fun memories of this bar and just sad to see it go," said Alishia Claeys of Eldridge.
