‘I want the Coach to be the Coach still': Webster bar works toward reopening after fire
WEBSTER, N.Y. (WROC) — On the morning of Tuesday, March 17, Frederick 'Fritz' Sierk got a call that the bar he owns, the Coach Sports Bar in Webster, had caught fire.
He arrived on the scene moments later.
Though the fire was placed under control within a few hours, the damage forced Fritz to temporarily close the bar.
'I was numb,' Fritz said, describing his feeling when seeing the fire. 'I'm used to dealing with people, but you're just numb. You just walk up and watch your building, the business you've been in for 35 years, burn.'
Even with his business destroyed, Fritz remains positive, saying that if it weren't for the first responders, the result could have been much worse.
'The reason the Coach is here is the fireman, the first responders,' he says. 'Without them, this place is sitting on the ground.'
The long road towards reopening has begun, as the investigation finishes and clean-up starts, demolition will soon begin, bringing the Coach one step closer to rebuilding, and reopening.
'Everything here is getting taken down, the entire Coach is going down to the studs, metal, and wood, and then rebuild,' he explains. 'It's a process that is at least six months, if not a year.'
Fritz says the employees are his main priority. He tells me multiple community events are being planned to support the staff, and that a GoFundMe page has been set up by a regular customer.
'They're the ones that make this place what it is,' Fritz says about his staff. 'They're the ones that are the front and face of the Coach Sports Bar, and they should get the rewards from the people helping out. It's just amazing how close the people of Webster, and beyond, get with a place like this.'
There is currently no set timeline on how soon the bar will be reopened, but Fritz says with the help of the community, it will come back better than ever.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
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