A late-night inferno tore through The Beer Gardens, a two-story bar and restaurant on 14th Avenue in Kenosha early Sunday, leaving the neighborhood fixture heavily damaged but, fortunately, without any reported injuries. Neighbors looked on as firefighters battled intense flames for hours and then worked to clear the charred structure.
What crews found at the scene
Firefighters were dispatched around 12:30 a.m. after callers reported a building fire and warned that people might still be trapped inside. The first crews arrived to find a large volume of fire ripping through the two-story building. A primary search quickly confirmed that everyone had already evacuated before firefighters got there. With void spaces in the ceiling of the bar and restaurant making interior work risky and difficult, officials shifted to a defensive strategy and brought the fire under control at about 3:30 a.m. Mutual-aid crews from the Villages of Pleasant Prairie, Bristol, Paris and Newport Township, Illinois, provided backfill at Kenosha stations, while the Village of Somers assisted on scene. No injuries to civilians or firefighters were reported, according to FOX6 News Milwaukee.
Building and business details
City licensing records list The Beer Gardens LLC at 3501 14th Avenue, according to the Kenosha Common Council. The building, long used as a local tavern and event spot, sustained significant structural and interior damage in the early-morning blaze. As of now, neighbors and nearby business owners have not issued formal public statements about the loss.
Investigators working to determine cause
Kenosha fire investigators are working to determine what sparked the blaze, according to a Kenosha Fire Department post cited by FOX6 News Milwaukee. Officials have not released any timeline for cleanup or reopening, and the city has yet to provide an estimate of the total damage.
