Firefighters' efforts saved part of the McClelland Dining Room

Jacksonville Fire crews responding to a Sunday morning fire that destroyed the west side of the former McClelland Dining Hall arrived on scene seven minutes after being dispatched, fire department records show.

“When we arrived and pulled into the street, there was fire coming out of the roof in the middle of the building,” said Fire Capt. Matt Leischner. “It kind of gave us a head start.”

Even so, crews from the Jacksonville and South Jacksonville Fire Departments accessed the building “right in the middle” and had the fire under control in about 20 minutes, Leischner said.

They worked about five more hours to fill in all the hot spots and clear the scene, he said.

Although the dining room on the east side of the building suffered heavy water and smoke damage, it remains largely intact. The kitchen and a storage room on the west side of the building were destroyed.

“It had probably been burning inside for a while for it to get this big,” Leischner said.

In addition to serving as a dining hall for generations of MacMurray College students, McClelland Hall was a gathering place for many community events, including the Kiwanis Club's annual Pancake and Sausage Day, which attracted thousands of people weddings, homecomings and proms every year.

News of the devastating fire prompted dozens of comments from people recalling their own connection to the building over the past decades.

Owner Michael Hayes said the building was fully up to the standards of a commercial kitchen, with fire suppression systems on all stoves and grills and special fire extinguishers. City Fire Inspector Gary Hickox confirmed this.

One thing it didn't have — and wasn't needed — was an alarm system that would have alerted firefighters at the first indication of a problem, Leischner said.

“Someone outside should have called,” he said of the fire.

That call finally came in at 4:46 a.m. When it was received, it first came as a fire near the 300 block of South Clay Avenue, Leischner said.

McClelland — which was leased to Brian Reilly as the home base for his foodservice restaurant — is at 438 E. College Ave. South Clay Avenue is the nearby cross street.

Hayes had nothing but praise for the fire department's efforts.

He received a call from Reilly shortly after 5 a.m. that the building was on fire. He arrived shortly after and spent the morning at the scene.

“I don’t have anything critical to say about the firefighters,” Hayes said Monday. “They were awesome. They did an incredible job saving the dining room.

He echoed the sentiment in a social media post, saying: “I witnessed today the dedication, commitment and professionalism of the (Jacksonville Police Department), Fire Department of Jacksonville and the South Jacksonville Fire Department. These men and women acted heroically and did everything that could be done to preserve as much of this historic structure as possible.

Hayes was working Monday to patch up the building's broken windows and secure the building to keep people out, he said. He planned to meet with his insurance company to begin determining what the next steps would be.

Firefighters' rough estimate of losses in the fire put the property at $1 million and property losses at $750,000, with an additional $500,000 in lost contents, Leischner said.

Hayes said those numbers were low, although he wasn't sure what the final numbers would be.

Reilly, who was worried Sunday about how he was going to fulfill the catering duties he had booked this week, has already found another commercial kitchen space for the time being, Hayes said.

Cured hosted the Governor Duncan Association barbecue Saturday night at Twisted Tree Music Hall, but everyone had returned to McClelland, cleaned up and left the building around 10 p.m., Reilly said Sunday. Everything was fine when they left, he said.

Investigators are still working to determine where and how the fire started, Leischner said.