Fire damages restaurant near Mountain Home, Ark.

NEAR MOUNTAIN HOME, Ark. (KY3) - A fire Wednesday morning damaged a popular fish restaurant near Mountain Home, Ark.

The fire happened at Fred’s Fish House on State Highway 101, shortly after 4 a.m. The Northeast Lakeside Fire Department responded first. Gameliel, Henderson, and Mountain Home Fire Department’s also assisted on the call.

Serving the community for over 50 years, many consider Fred’s Fish House a supper-time staple in Mountain Home.

”Well it’s been here a long time, and whenever we think about eating fish, this is the place we come,” said Barbara Greenlee. ”They have one of the best menus in Mountain Home, it’s just really sad that it’s gone.”

Firefighters responded around 4:20 a.m.

”We were delayed some by heavy fog this morning by a few minutes, of course the kitchen was heavily involved when we arrived,” said Northeast Lakeside Fire Chief Henry Porter.

It took nearly three hours to knock down the flames, which Porter says can be a challenge with older structures.

“A lot of times we go to these older buildings and it gets difficult, you can have multiple roof systems and then steel contains all of it,” he explained. “So it’s all contained under this steel, very difficult to get to.”

The business was closed. But the loss is big for the community.

”Gosh, when I saw it, it was just devastating,” said Greenlee. ”We’re really going to miss it.”

Many are hopeful the fish house will return some day, although any plans for the restaurant are unknown at this time.

”Fred’s is known well beyond Mountain Home, people come from all over to eat it,” said Ambrose Greenlee. “Anybody that’s ever lived here, they come back and they want to go to Fred’s to eat.“

The investigation is ongoing into the cause of the fire. The restaurant’s owner was out of town and unavailable to speak Wednesday.

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