Wiederholt’s Supper Club located at 14535 240th St. East in Miesville, has been a regional destination for decades. It is a place that many families go to for celebrations, a place for first dates and even engagements, so when news spread of the supper club having a fire, area residents began to have concerns and flashbacks to the fire at Hastings Perkins that shut them down for over a year.

To start things off, the fire at Wiederholt’s was not a Perkins level fire, in fact, they hope to re-open as early as Friday, Oct. 14, mostly due to having to clean up.

“Thanks to the quick response by the staff at Wiederholt’s, the fire was contained to the grill,” said Miesville Fire Chief Jeff Lindquist.

“Their quick response to put the fire out with their fire extinguisher initially prevented the fire from spreading to the structure. This shows the importance of not only businesses having a charged, up to date, readily available fire extinguisher on hand, but it is important for homeowners too.”

The call came in around 6:36 p.m. on Sunday and by the time the Miesville Fire Department arrived, patrons and employees were evacuated. MFD entered the kitchen and found the fire had reignited but was still contained in the grill.

“Underneath the grill was on fire. It looks like some electrical wiring caused the fire. We believe it started at some sort of malfunction with the electrical, and it did not spread to any of the structure,” added Chief Lindquist.

Crews then went to work inspecting the rest of the kitchen for any fires in the wall, then they checked the roof and other areas of the building. Once they were confident the fire was contained to the grill, they assisted with the evacuation of the smoke in the building.

“Overall, the call took about an hour,” said Chief Lindquist. “45 minutes of that was clearing the building of the smoke.”

A social media post from Wiederholt’s did confirm the target reopen date of Friday, Oct. 14.

Thankfully, the damage was minimal, no one was injured, largely in part because of the quick reaction of the Wiederholt’s staff and their use of the fire extinguisher. Because of the discharge of the extinguisher, a large part of the closure is likely due to the need to clean up the residue.

Ironically, this story is also a great tie into National Fire Prevention Week presented by the National Fire Prevention Association. Fire Prevention Week runs October 9-15 and is celebrating their 100th anniversary of bringing this weeklong reminder to people around the US.

Some of the tips that are on the NFPA website speak on making sure your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors work by testing them regularly as well as changing the batteries every six months. The time changes for Daylight Savings Time are a great time to change the batteries. Making sure you have properly charged and accessible fire extinguishers around the home and more. To learn more about National Fire Prevention Week, visit www.nfpa.org/ Events/Events/Fire-Prevention- Week. Chief Lindquist also pointed out that it important to not only have properly charged fire extinguishers around the home and shop, but it is also important to know how to use them.

“If someone was unsure about the use of their extinguishers, we would be happy to take a look at them and teach them proper use if they were to stop by the fire department with them. It is also important that older kids and younger teen know the proper use, so bring them with,” he said.

For the fire at Wiederholt’s, Chief wanted to thank the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office and the staff at Wiederholt’s for the quick aide they offered.