Alehouse Pinned Hopes on Garden Hoses

Woodbridge, Va. –– A little over a week after opening their doors, the employees of a Woodbridge restaurant were fighting to keep it from burning to the ground.

A brush fire broke out behind the Bungalow Ale House on Prince William Parkway about 2 p.m. Saturday. With high winds in the area, some embers from the fire blew onto the mulch and sparked flames at the newly opened lounge.

That sent employees of the store scrambling to get garden hoses to douse the flames, and then to spray the building to try to keep it from catching fire.

The fire behind the restaurant raged so hot that several propane tanks at a nearby homeless camp exploded.

By 6 p.m., police officers blocked off the entrance to the restaurant and surrounding shopping plaza.

Customers and employees were told they didn’t have to go home but they couldn’t stay here.

“The police came and told us they were ordering a voluntary evacuation of the area, and when the blocked off the entrance no one was able to get to us and we closed early for the night,” said Bungalow Ale House General Manager Mike Holcomb.

No one was injured and the building suffered no damage, but there’s is just one more story of how residents of the Potomac Communities on Feb. 19 coped with the sight, smell and threat of burning brush so close to where they live and work.

The fire behind the restaurant was extinguished at 10 p.m. Saturday.

The Alehouse February 9 and filled the spot where a Don Pablos Mexican restaurant used to be.

“These are just a few hiccups during our opening time, but we’ll get through them,” said Halcomb.