3-alarm fire breaks out at Downtown Lounge on Cumberland St. (updated)

Update, June 21 – Lebanon mayor Sherry Capello issued a press release about the fire.

Update – Jim Osmanalloj, co-owner of the former Downtown Lounge, recently renamed the Downtown Taprhouse, contacted LebTown via text on Wednesday morning, June 17. He said, in part:

“We will evaluate and wait for the investigation to complete surrounding the fire yesterday. We’ve received a lot of conflicting reports and we’ll go from there. One major thing I’d like to touch on is to thank the community, the firefighters, the mayor, fire chief and everyone involved in ensuring the fire was controlled.

Downtown Taphouse will have a minor setback with all the damages but it will be built back up and we can’t wait to get everyone more updates as they come. Our priority is the tenants and ensuring they find a place to stay while we go through the rebuild process.

We sincerely want to thank every firefighter who showed what community is about yesterday. It has built a stronger attachment to the Lebanon Community to provide something spectacular when the time permits. We wish everyone a great and healthy summer. We will rebuild and be back stronger than ever!”

Update – Speaking to reporters at 11:15 a.m., city fire Chief A.J. Sweitzer said the fire is believed to have started on the fourth floor of 734 Cumberland St., which housed the former Downtown Lounge. It spread west to the adjacent building at 736, occupied on the first floor by Level Eleven Marketing & Creative Agency. The roof at the rear of 736 appeared to have been breached by the blaze.

Firefighters from Lebanon, Lancaster, and Dauphin counties were still on scene putting out flareups.

Sweitzer said the state police fire marshal has been called, but he declined to speculate on the fire’s cause. He added that the first floor business spaces of the affected buildings sustained smoke and water damage, but were not directly involved in the fire.

Sweitzer said there were no known injuries.

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Update – Speaking to reporters at 11 a.m., Lebanon Mayor Sherry Capello said the fire was still smoldering and believed to have started on the fourth floor of the Downtown Lounge building. Capello said there were no known injuries.

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A three-alarm fire broke out Tuesday morning on the 700 block of Cumberland Street.

County dispatch logs show the first calls to 734 Cumberland St., address of the Downtown Lounge, shortly after 9:10 a.m.

Around 10 a.m., gray smoke was seen billowing out of the front of the fourth floor of the Downtown Lounge building and coming out from the roof.

It also appears that the roof of the adjacent building to the west had burned through.

As of about 10:30 a.m. it appeared that the fire had been mostly controlled. The extent of damage was unclear at publication time but from the outside the bar room appeared to be uninvolved.

About a dozen fire companies responded. No word on any injuries at present. Ambulances were on standby but no victims were observed on scene.

List of responding companies

• South Lebanon Fire Department
• Neptune Fire Company
• Neversink Fire Company
• Annville-Cleona Fire Department
• Keystone Hook & Ladder Company
• Rural Security Fire Company
• Glenn Lebanon Fire Company
• Weavertown Fire Company
• Bunker Hill Fire Company
• Citizen Fire Company
• Fort Indiantown Gap Fire Department
• Mount Zion Fire Company
• Campbelltown Fire Company
• Newmanstown Fire Company
• Hershey Fire Department
• Hummelstown Fire Department
• Pine Grove North End Fire Company
• Womelsdorf Fire Department
• City and County Fire Police
• Salvation Army
• First Aid & Safety Patrol
• Lebanon County Department of Emergency Services
• Lebanon Police Department
• Pennsylvania State Police