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By FRED MILLER, Review Staff Writer
NEWELL - A state fire marshal's office investigator spent
most of the day Monday sifting through the charred remains of
a local stripper club. Christie's Cabaret burned to the
ground in the blaze, first reported at 5:45 a.m. by a security
guard at the NewChem chemical plant across the highway. No
injuries were reported, and no one was believed in the
building at the time.
"The investigation will be bigger than the fire," Newell
Fire Chief Scott Wilson predicted while the fire was still
burning.
John Oliver, an assistant state fire marshal, was on the
scene by 10 a.m. Monday.
"He sifted through rubble most of the day after he got
there," said Wilson. He anticipated that the investigator
would spend at least one and possibly two more days at the
site.
Oliver talked to operators of the club and a number of
other people who came forward to offer information, said
Wilson.
Newell firefighters were there until after dark Monday,
sifting the ashes for clues to the fire's origin and cause,
and extinguishing embers still smoldering in trees behind the
burned building.
Hancock County Sheriff's Deputy Jeff McIntyre, the first
official on the scene Monday morning, said the fire was more
advanced on the south end of the building when he arrived.
"When I pulled up . . . there was a ton of smoke coming out
from the roof," said McIntyre.
He knows the club was open until 4 a.m. because deputies
were involved around that time in an apparently unrelated
chase of a drunk driving suspect. The chase originated on the
Christie's lot when a deputy tried to talk to two Hispanic men
sitting in a vehicle. The vehicle took off, but was stopped
south on Route 2
Wilson said firefighters from Newell and eight other
departments were hampered by the lack of a nearby fire
hydrant. Water was hauled by tanker from nearby BOC Gases and
placed into portable tanks set up on the parking lot. A
hydrant at Mountaineer produced insufficient flow for the
tankers, the chief said.
When the first fire unit, a tanker from Newell, arrived on
the scene at 5:58, Wilson said, "There was fire on the south
end (of the building) and heavy smoke throughout . . .there
was no oxygen (to the fire) and it was ready to flash."
Wilson said firefighters "made entrance on the north and
south ends but were forced back out because of heavy fire and
no water."
Fire departments on the scene included Chester, New
Manchester, Oakland, Lawrenceville, Hookstown, and New
Cumberland. Oakland, Weirton and Liverpool Township were on
standby during the fire, with the township firefighters
standing by at the Newell station.
There were about 20 fire units, including six tankers, at
the scene, located less than a mile south of Mountaineer Race
Track and Resort.
Responding to a rumor that Christie's had been bought by
Mountaineer, track spokesman Tamara Petit said Mountaineer
does not own the property, but "we own the land around it."
Christie's Cabaret is one of a chain of strip clubs by that
name operated out of corporate offices in Arizona. Through its
advertising agency, J. Dog Agency out of Boston and Fort
Lauderdale, Christie's had stopped advertising for at least 10
of its clubs as of Monday, according to a sales representative
from J. Dog. Ads were cancelled in local newspapers including
The Review and the Steubenville Herald-Star.
The J. Dog salesman said Christie's corporate office has a
practice of paying for its advertising a week at a time in
advance. The corporate office had called Friday to say no
check would be sent for this week's advertising, so all ads
were cancelled.
The internet shows 12 Christie's Cabarets operating in
Ohio, West Virginia, Tennesse, Kentucky and North Carolina. A
Christie's in Canton operates with a "no nudity" policy. A new
Christie's has been announced as opening soon at North Lima,
near a truckstop off the Ohio Turnpike.
Articles of incorporation for the business, on file with
the W.Va. Secretary of State's office, were signed by Bill
Beshara of 120 Columbia Dr., Chester, and Ed Beshara of 3447
Logan Way, Youngstown. The club's liquor license, which still
is listed under the name Tiffany's, a former name for the
strip club, is signed by both Besharas and also by an Earl
Lundy. FST Inc., identified as a parent corporation, is also
listed on the liquor license.
Ryan Miller, staff writer for the Herald-Star, contributed
to this story.
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