Mount Vernon remembers bowling alley destroyed in Sunday fire

MOUNT VERNON - Owners of the Donmar Lanes bowling alley and community members gathered Monday to look at the aftermath of a massive fire that destroyed the lanes Sunday night.

'To see it go is heartbreaking,” said Steve Hawtrey, longtime Mount Vernon resident. To him, Donmar Lanes wasn't just a place for league bowling. It's where he met his wife - who worked the grill part-time - nearly a decade ago. 'It's just meant a lot to me and my family, and we've had kids' birthday parties here. It's just a lot of memories,” Hawtrey continued. 'I can't express how much sorrow I feel right now.”

Hawtrey and several other witnesses saw the fire Sunday night and could feel the heat of the flames from a block away. Knocking it down took a massive response from Mount Vernon firefighters and more than a dozen other fire departments from surrounding cities.

Fire Chief Nathan Goodlove said the fire was so intense, and the building's roof so engulfed, that crews had to pull back and fight it defensively to keep it from spreading.

'Rough figure was about 140 firefighters from surrounding areas that came to help us out,” Goodlove said Monday morning.

Mount Vernon Mayor Jim Moore said he considers this 'a very big loss” to the community, and echoed what Goodlove told us about the size of the fire.

'Olin said when they left Olin with their tanker [to go to the scene], that they could see the flames from Olin, Iowa,” Moore said. 'That's 22 miles away.”

Moore said the fire drained about 80,000 gallons of the city's water, so they had to truck in water from neighboring Lisbon. He hopes the current owners, the Berner family, will rebuild.

'All of my great grandkids have had birthday parties here.”