1 week Ago By Jack Klasey | Looking Back
Kankakee Police Sergeant Tom Jones and Patrolman Paul Blanchette were driving on Willow Street near Harrison Avenue in the early morning hours of July 8, 1958, when they noticed a “glow” one block to the north, beyond the American-Marietta [now Valspar] Paint Co. plant. Jones and Blanchette then drove to the area, where they discovered that the “glow” was a fire burning in The Flame Restaurant and Bar at 625 E.
Fair St., just west of Mound Grove Cemetery. They radioed a fire report to headquarters at 1:56 a.
m. “The building went up in flames following an explosion shortly after the premises had been checked by Deputy Sheriff Dan O’Laughlin at 1:40 a.m.
,” reported the Kankakee Daily Journal. “By the time the fire department arrived at the scene, the roof of the building had already fallen in.” Kankakee Fire Chief James Marnell told the newspaper, “A service station attendant, who also called in the report, said he saw a car leave from near the restaurant at high speed and a short time later heard an explosion.
Some Venetian blinds, linen and silver were blown out [of the restaurant building] and found in the parking lot.” Although the restaurant was on the north side of Fair Street, just outside the city limits, the Kankakee Fire Department responded to the fire alarm, aided by the Bradley and Bourbonnais fire departments. Some 35 firefighters worked for about two hours to bring the blaze under control.
“Main efforts of the fire departments were confined to keeping the fire from spreading to an adjoining service station and preventing sparks from blowing across the road to the American-Marietta Paint Co. plant,” the Daily Journal noted. Chief Marnell estimated the loss at “approximately $42,000 to the building and $6,000 to contents.
” From the 1940s until its destruction by fire in 1958, the building at 625 E. Fair St. had been operated as a restaurant.
In the mid-to-late 1940s, it was Neal’s Dining Room; in 1948, it became Sully’s Dining Room and Café, offering “Delicious American, Italian, and Chinese Dinners.” The Flame opened there in 1956, but the business suffered a major setback in 1957, when the building was seriously damaged by the devastating Soldier Creek flood of July 12-13. Four months later, on Nov.
22, the refurbished restaurant reopened. The Flame advertised itself as “Kankakee’s Smartest Cocktail Lounge,” offering complete dinners, dining and dancing, and continuous entertainment at the piano bar by “The Three Flames.” The witness report of a car speeding away from the building and a subsequent explosion, combined with the rapid spread of the fire, led authorities to believe the blaze had been intentionally set.
Joseph Haag, a deputy state fire marshal, told the newspaper that “the fire was definitely started by arson. He made the statement after consultation this morning with Kankakee Fire Chief James Marnell and insurance investigators.” Investigators found the restaurant building was held in trust by a Chicago bank, and leased to Chicago resident Chris Fanaras, who had, in turn, sublet the property to Ed Baron, of Kankakee.
Baron had operated The Flame for about 18 months. The Kankakee man met with investigators at the State Fire Marshal’s office in Chicago on Friday, July 11. According to the newspaper, he told the officials that “he left The Flame at 1:15 a.
m. Tuesday, and accompanied by an employee of The Flame, went to the nearby Grove Restaurant. Baron said he was still in the Grove when a customer came in and told of the fire at The Flame.
” Deputy State Fire Marshal Joseph Haag told the Journal that “Robert Johnson, operator of the Grove had told him earlier that Baron was in the Grove during the period before the fire. Baron’s alibi ‘stands up very well,’ Haag said.” Also interviewed by investigators was Chris Fanaras of Chicago, who had operated The Flame before subleasing the restaurant to Ed Baron.
They were following up on a report that a car owned by Fanaras’ wife had been seen parked near The Flame a few minutes before the fire was reported. “Officials said that a Kankakee County sheriff’s deputy noticed the car when he made a routine check at the restaurant and tavern about 1:40 a.m.
Tuesday,” reported the Daily Journal. “The deputy noted the license number and later found that it was registered to [Fanaras’ wife] Helen.” Fanaras told investigators “he could not explain the report that his wife’s car was seen in Kankakee shortly before the fire.
He said that the car was parked and locked in front of his home when he retired Monday night and was still there when he left his home Tuesday morning.” The last newspaper mention of The Flame Restaurant fire appeared in the Aug. 1, 1958, issue of the Daily Journal: “The restaurant fire has been the subject of an investigation by the state fire marshal’s office in Chicago.
A spokesman ...
said today that the investigation is continuing but that there are no new developments.”.
