FORKS — The cause of the blaze that destroyed the old Olympic Theatre building in Forks is likely to remain a mystery, fire investigators said.
The fire appeared suspicious because no electricity was hooked up to the long-unused and empty building, so no accidental cause was evident, Clallam County Fire District No. 1 Chief Phil Arbeiter said Wednesday after the fire at 3:30 a.m. that morning.
But Thursday, Arbeiter said the investigation was wrapping up with no conclusions.
Because the building was not guarded overnight after the fire, no evidence that turned up could be legally used anyway, the fire chief said.
Wednesday’s fire destroyed the Forks landmark at 25 E. Division St.
Theater’s owners
Bert and Grace Fletcher built the 354-seat theater in 1930, originally to screen silent films, and the business had remained in the family for three generations before it was closed in 1988 and then sold in 2000 to Rich and Mae Hsu.
The dilapidated building had attracted transients and mischievous youth — not to mention rats — since it was closed.
Hsu had boarded it up to prevent people from entering a couple of years ago, he and Arbeiter said.
When firefighters arrived, rats were flooding out of the building to escape the flames, Arbeiter said.
Focus on nearby buildings
When the blaze was reported, firefighters had rushed to it but were unable to save the structure and turned their focus instead to protecting the surrounding buildings.
Hsu also owns several of the structures around the now-debris-filled lot.
Only one of those suffered any damage — a minor crack in a window from heat — from the blaze.
“We are really appreciative of what they did, even though we did lose the one building,” Hsu said.
The boarded-up building, which he has owned since 2000, was not insured, he said.
“We knew that it was a little bit of a risk, but I didn’t think that in the condition I could get an insurance company to cover it,” he said.
The building was assessed at $39,100 in 2009, according to the Clallam County assessor and treasurer website.
The previous owners had shuttered the business 12 years before Hsu purchased it, and it already had plaster falling from the walls and some water damage, said the former owner, Bert Fletcher.
Hsu said he wasn’t sure of his future plans, but he intends to have the site cleaned up and to put something on the lot eventually.
“My philosophy is that destiny has already arranged [the future] for me,” he said.
“It is hard sometimes thinking more positively, but we are trying.”
Bert and Grace Fletcher had sold the theater to their son, Henry, in 1947.
Henry and his wife, Estene, ran it until his death in 1951, and Estene and her son, Bert, ran it until they closed it in 1988.
Bert sold the building in 2000 after his mother’s death.
Many memories
With the flattening of the iconic building, few people reacted with surprise, but many had nostalgic memories of the former hot spot.
Diane Schostak, a lifelong Forks resident, said she spent much time there.
One time, at about age 25, she had a particularly vivid experience.
“It was summer 1980, and Stephen King’s ‘The Shining’ was playing at the Olympic Theatre,” she said.
“It was a very scary movie, and I watched most of it from the lobby, peeking through a little gap in the aisle curtain.
“Mrs. Fletcher was quite puzzled why I would pay for a ticket and not sit down and watch it,” Schostak said.
Her husband, Ken, sat alone in the theater while she waited in the lobby.
Adria Fuhrman said her husband, Walter R. Fuhrman — the nephew of the first owner of the building — installed insulation in the rafters when he was about 11 years old in 1938.
“While he was working up there, he found a pocket watch, the kind they called a turnip watch,” she said.
“It was a pretty good-sized. When he got back down, he showed it to his Uncle Bert, who said he remembered he had left it up there in 1927.”
First movie
Clallam County Sheriff’s Sgt. Brian King, now 35, said his first movie-going experience was at the Olympic Theatre when he was about 6 years old.
“The first time I ever went to the movie theater, I watched ‘E.T.’ and later watched ‘Gremlins’ and ‘Bambi’ there with my parents and my brothers in the ’80s,” he said.
“I remember that it was a really small theater, so you had to be well to the front of the line or you’d have to wait for the next showing.
Forks landmark
“That building is one of Forks’ landmarks,” he added, “and with the school going down, and the next thing you know, this going, it is kind of like all the old buildings are going away.”
The Forks High School building was demolished this summer as part of a project to replace failing portions of the stucture.
Starla Daman, 46, a longtime Forks resident, said she grew up going to the movies, and the idea of the theater was always important to her.
“I was brokenhearted to hear it had burned down,” she said.
“We had always hoped it might be brought back.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
