Fire at the Old Hickory Inn

Link to breaking news at WHAS News

How sad! Not many details at this point, but the area is blocked off for blocks all around. WHAS is reporting that there were no injuries.

Edited to add:

Courier Journal reporter Jessie Halladay reports on the fire:

"Old Hickory Inn, a bar that has been a landmark of the Germantown area for decades, was destroyed by fire this afternoon. Firefighters received multiple calls about the fire around 4:10 p.m. and found heavy smoke and flames coming from the building at 1038 Lydia St.

The cause of the fire is unclear but it was complicated by a broken gas meter that fed the flames and by alcohol in the bar area. Sgt. Sal Melendez, spokesman for Louisville Fire & Rescue, said the fire “proved to be very challenging. Alcohol and flames don’t mix.”

It took 40 firefighters about an hour to get the fire under control in the two-story building, which was unoccupied when the blaze started. The second floor of the building was vacant. No one was injured in the fire, Melendez said. An older neighbor was evacuated from her home next door as a precaution, but the fire did not spread to the residence.

David Hoffmann, who has run the bar for about 10 ½ years got word of the fire while he was at his home. “I’m destroyed. I don’t have no insurance,” said Hoffmann, who did not own the building.

A neighbor, Dave Sidebottom, 40, said he had lived in the neighborhood his entire life as he took photos of the damaged building. He said he recalled his grandfather going to the bar at the corner of Hickory and Lydia streets. “It’s always been a tavern, like a landmark. I hate to see it go,” Sidebottom said. At least eight firefighting trucks were on the scene. Arson investigators were also present, seeking a cause of the fire, which is normal procedure."