Historic St. Paul bar reopens after vehicle collides with electrical transformer, causes fire
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The historic St. Paul bar, McGovern's, sustained some damage after a vehicle collided with an electrical transformer, causing a fire Friday night.
St. Paul police are looking for a driver who ran away after the crash.
"All of a sudden, I just saw two giant fireballs," said Gayle Winegar, who lives on Cathedral Hill in St. Paul.
St. Paul police say those fireballs, a nearby business fire, and power outages on the coldest night of the early winter were caused by a crash into this transformer on Cathedral Hill.
But the impact stretched across Interstate 35E, knocking out power for thousands including Children's Hospital for a time.
"I was noisy and bright and was scary," Winegar said. "And then it went black. The only thing you could see after that were the lights on the High Bridge — every single light went out down there."
While many were left in the dark, the fire on the rooftop of Patrick McGovern's lit up the night sky.
St. Paul police say the crash was so forceful it knocked down a power line near McGovern's roof. Xcel says that started the fire.
"They had a ladder up, and there were probably a dozen to 20 tenders here," said bystander William White.
Xcel says power was restored within 90 minutes for almost all of the 9,2000 customers impacted. That includes the business right below that fire, McGovern's was back open on Saturday.
While police continue the search for the driver behind it all, neighbors say they're thankful it wasn't worse.
"The thing that we were just reflecting on is that you realize how when something like this happens. How tenuous it all is," Winegar said.
According to the bar's Facebook page, the fire broke out around 11:39 p.m.
Despite Friday night's fire, owner Pat Boemer said the doors of his building were back open the following morning.
"I've had a lot of things happen in 40-some years, but this was a little bizarre," said Boemer. "I guess if you looked at it 11:30 Friday night, it didn't look so promising."
Aside from the badly damaged turret atop his building, a building that dates back to 1888, Boemer said water used to put out the fire damaged not only his bar ceiling, but also an apartment he rents out right above the bar.
"Very much like out of the movies. Bright lights, brightest I've ever seen. Lots of smoke," said Shauna Allen.
Allen's apartment, located above the bar, received the brunt of the damage. Debris covered her floor Sunday. Allen is able to stay in an apartment next door, while clean-up continues.
"I'm really blessed that the firefighters got here when they did, and that everything happened perfectly, that no one got hurt," said Allen.
The second floor of McGovern's has served as the home of Steelers Fans of Minnesota for 17 years.
"We heard about it after it happened, and we were frantically calling around trying to figure out if they were going to be open, trying to figure out if we had a backup place to go to," said Tim Dean, a Steelers fan from Minneapolis. "The St. Paul Fire Department did an amazing job keeping this thing under control."
Meanwhile, Boemer is counting his blessings.
"It could have been so much worse, and that's the whole key, and the fact that nobody got hurt, that's the upside of this thing," said Boemer.
