PORT ANGELES — A spectacular fire in the New Peking, a restaurant and lounge in a landmark building on U.S. Highway 101 which burned to the ground early Tuesday, left a Port Angeles family without a business.
It also left competitive pool players without a tournament location, and a Port Townsend muralist without his work he painted on the outer walls six years ago.
All lanes were blocked on the highway until about 8:40 a.m., snarling the post-holiday commute between Port Angeles and Sequim.
Cause of the fire in the Gales Addition section at 2416 Highway 101 was being investigated — and fireworks are a possibility, said Capt. Dan Huff of Clallam County Fire District No. 2.
The murals on the outside of the building, which were painted by Port Townsend artist James Mayo in 2005, were destroyed.
Only the head and neck of the dragon facing Highway 101 remained visible.
What walls that did not burn were pulled apart by firefighters to get to the flames inside.
A member of the Fong family, which owns the business, was in the building at the time the fire started and told firefighters that the blaze began outside and high in the building, Huff said.
Everyone inside the building was able to escape without injury. No firefighters were injured.
Firefighters from three departments responded to the blaze at about 3:20 a.m. and had the flames out at about 7:20 a.m., Huff said.
Firefighters continued spraying water on hot spots until about 9 a.m.
The fire was large and difficult to fight because of the way the building was constructed, and because of flammable materials — such as kitchen oils and alcohol — inside, Huff said.
Fire District 2 led the attack on the flames, with assistance from crews and ladder trucks from the Port Angeles city department and Clallam County Fire District No. 3.
By 11 a.m. all four lanes of Highway 101 were reopened, but traffic was slow in front of the scene of the fire, said Trooper Krista Hedstrom, State Patrol spokesperson.
When the highway was blocked, motorists were detoured into Gales Addition.
The family-owned business employed four or five workers in addition to family members, owner Kevin Fong said.
Fong, who learned of the fire later that morning, said he didn’t know yet whether the family would rebuild.
“We’ll take this one day at a time,” Fong said.
“I can’t even think straight.”
The family purchased the building in 1985 and opened the restaurant in 1986, Fong said.
Although the building was known in recent years as a pool hall and bar with Chinese food available, billiards was a relatively new pursuit, he said.
New Peking got its first pool table in 1995 — an automated table that the restaurant rented, then later purchased.
“I never played pool before then,” Fong said.
Fong and other family members began playing, and a few years later, purchased two more pool tables.
On Independence Day, the New Peking featured 12 pool tables and was home to two pool leagues — Western BCA Pool Players Association and the Peninsula Pool League.
“We have a lot of great shooters in town,” Fong said.
Fong doesn’t know where the league players will go now.
Outside, the murals portraying a dragon and other Chinese images were the result of a comment by Mayo, when he stopped in the building for a beer.
“I told the owner it needed a dragon,” Mayo recalled Tuesday.
Mayo eventually completed the large dragon on the east side of the building, along with several other Chinese art style murals on both the outside and interior.
If the family decides to rebuild, Mayo said he would be very willing to discuss replacing the murals.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
