Fire guts Post Falls pub
Tom and Teresa Capone are planning to rebuild their namesake pub in Post Falls, but much of the valuable sports memorabilia that burned inside the bar early Wednesday is irreplaceable.
About 100 old baseball mitts were lost, along with baseballs, bats, bobblehead dolls and autographed photos of athletes, Teresa Capone said.
“It was mostly baseball related,” she said. “We’re huge baseball fans.”
Capone said there was quite a bit of memorabilia from Hayden resident Don Larsen, the former New York Yankee who pitched a perfect game in the 1956 World Series.
Post Falls police say the explosive fire that gutted Capone’s Pub and Grill was arson.
A newspaper carrier reported the fire about 3:20 a.m., and firefighters arrived at the scene at 315 N. Ross Point Road to find the building burning, Post Falls police Lt. Greg McLean said.
The 3,800-square-foot building is still standing, but the interior was gutted.
“The interior of the building is a total loss,” Capone said. “But the building itself appears to be salvageable. We were fortunate.”
No one was working there at the time the fire started, and no one was injured fighting the fire.
McLean said the blaze was ignited by an explosion near the restrooms involving a 5-gallon gas can filled with an unknown accelerant. The blast blew bowls, trays, buckets and two hand trucks out of a storage room and into the parking lot. Several windows were blown out as well.
Because of the severity of the explosion, the arsonist may have been injured, McLean said.
The business had another arson scare a few months ago, when someone ignited several water bottles filled with gasoline behind the building. That fire didn’t spread, McLean said.
The motive for Wednesday’s crime is unclear, McLean said. Capone said she has no idea who would have burned her business.
The Capones, who opened Capone’s Pub and Grill in Coeur d’Alene’s Midtown neighborhood a decade ago, expanded to Post Falls less than a year ago. The Post Falls pub employed 20.
Like the Coeur d’Alene location, the Post Falls Capone’s was a popular spot. “Business was good,” Capone said. “It had exceeded its expectations. We were very happy with the way things were going.”