Whale's Tail - Locals keep us updated

Saw on waltonsun that it caught fire earlier this evening. Any updates?

Whale's Tail - Locals keep us updated

We now as much as you, however, I can tell you my power was on and off all morning then had a complete power failure for 6 hours. I was by there earlier and didn%26#39;t see a thing. I will read the paper in the morning and try to post again.

MIRAMAR BEACH - The interior of the popular Whale%26#39;s Tail beachfront restaurant suffered smoke damage and parts of the roof were left charred after a late-afternoon fire broke out Saturday.

South Walton Fire District Deputy Chief Sean Hughes said the restaurant and other businesses on Scenic Gulf Drive had been having intermittent problems with power throughout the day. He said the fire was likely ';electrical in nature'; and that the 10-15 mph winds had fanned the flames.

Around 4:55 p.m., the power came back on after an outage and ';the staff noticed that there was some power arcing above the ice machine in the back of the kitchen, and they noticed some flames above the ice machine,'; he said.

';They evacuated the building and called 911, and when our units arrived, they saw smoke issuing from the building.';

Dozens of firefighters from South Walton and Destin were at the scene, including two ladder trucks. A fire marshal was en route to the scene to investigate the fire as firefighters sprayed streams of water on a small fire still flickering out from beneath several shingles on the roof. Dozens of spectators watched while several firefighters pulled hoses to the top deck while police secured the scene with yellow tape.

Terry Parker, a Miramar Beach resident, was inside the restaurant when the fire broke out and commented on how long it seemed to take for firefighters to arrive. And once they did arrive, ';they had no water pressure.';

';The firefighters had two cooks helping them run the water hoses,'; added Chris Pierce, a Santa Rosa Beach resident.

Hughes said the restaurant - a completely wooden structure - has been standing for at least 30 years and weathered both hurricanes and tornadoes. The fact that it had rained for three days prior to the fire, leaving the outside of the wooden structure wet, Parker said, was probably its ';saving grace.';

Whale's Tail - Locals keep us updated

OMG! We stay very close to Whales Tail!! I hope things are ok there! Did you have tornados? WoW! Hope everyone is safe! Thanks semco for the updates. I see that there is a double red flag out today!! Bad rip currents? BarB

Barb, we have had VIOLENT storms for 3 days. It will take a while for the water to calm.

Here%26#39;s the story about Whales Tail in today%26#39;s paper.

nwfdailynews.com/news/…fire_county.html

It%26#39;s alot worse than the paper reported. Looks charred from the outside. Doubt they will be open anytime soon...

I pulled off the road on Sat as all the firetrucks whizzed by.

My guess is that olderhottie made the roadie out for Beer Fest, stopped in the WT for an ';afternooncap';, and her hotness caused the fire.

Power arcing above the ice machine? Yeah, that would explain it. Bobbing for cold ones. 8-)

That%26#39;s right Chief; It was me, I started the whole thing; accidentally of course!

I was there right before it happened. The electricity must have just come back on because there was a long line to buy drinks. We decided it was too windy to eat outside on the beach, so we walked back to the condo. Before we got back we could see white smoke first, then heavy black, black smoke. We watched for awhile and figured it must have been a power surge or something like that.I think my son posted pictures and a video on facebook.

In today%26#39;s paper.

nwfdailynews.com/news/…whale_blaze.html

Walls are being ripped down - They have a crew on site and at least one wall is now gone - Looks like it is pretty well gutted. - might have to be a total rebuild.