RATHDRUM – The sign outside the charred remains of Rathdrum’s Shady Bar & Grill spells it out: “We shall rise from the ashes. Be back shortly.” The bar caught fire in the pre-dawn hours July 4.

Last week, the bar’s co-owner Steve Milos of Rathdrum entered the pungent cave-black first floor, pulled a stool up at the mostly intact bar and took a pull on a Camel cigarette.

Admittedly “devastated” by the mess, he said and his brother/business partner, Don Milos, of Post Falls, are determined to reopen the establishment they bought nine years ago. They also own The Shanty in Coeur d’Alene.

“It’s looking pretty ugly,” Milos told a vendor retrieving a damaged machine leased from his company.

But the Shady Bar will be reopened, he said. And local contractors will be hired to make repairs.

“It’s gonna get done,” Milos said. “I’m not going to walk away from it. It’s my livelihood.”

Estimated to be at least 70 years old, the building was once a house, Milos said.

The 911 call came in at approximately 4 a.m. and was made by someone visiting a tenant in the building’s second-floor apartment, said Milos.

The blaze was so intense that it took 30 firefighters from five different departments about six hours to put it out. Either fireworks or cigarettes are the likely cause of the fire, Northern Lakes Fire District Chief Ralph Kramer said after speaking with an inspector from the state fire marshal’s office.

Kramer said the building was a “complete loss,” but he did not place a monetary value on the damages.

Fortunately, the business was insured, Milos said. However, he has yet to receive any settlement funds.

Seven people worked at the bar. The upstairs tenant has been forced out. A long-haul truck driver, he could be sleeping in his rig, Milos said.

Rathdrum residents are lending lots of moral support, added Milos.

“They’re willing to help. They want us back in business,” he said.