Pizza Ranch starts repairs after fire

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Pizza Ranch will be closed for the immediate future following a fire that damaged the building on Monday, May 6.

According to co-owner Dustin Jentz, the fire started when he was using a propane torch to eliminate weeds in the rock bed alongside the building, thinking that the calm wind and rainy weather would offer reasonably safe conditions. Eventually though, Jentz said he noticed that the bushes near the exterior wall had started to smolder and by the time he was able to retrieve some water they were completely ablaze.

“I ran back inside to grab a fire extinguisher and my manager called 911,” said Jentz.

Jentz exhausted one fire extinguisher and was getting a second when he saw smoke starting to enter the building, at which point he and his staff evacuated.

“There were only three crew members inside, and thankfully nobody was hurt,” said Jentz.

The fire department arrived soon afterwards and got the remaining fire put out once they were able to cut power to the building and get inside with hoses.

Fire Chief Marty Parcher says that any kind of fire near a building is unsafe and recommends against burning weeds in that way.

“That’s something you should never use for something like that,” said Parcher. “Just don’t do it.”

Closed for the foreseeable future, work on repairing the restaurant’s exterior wall has already started, but that will just be the start.

“The majority of the damage is on the exterior, but we will need a fair amount of electric work done,” said Jentz. “There will also be a fair amount of drywall repair and smoke damage clean up to do.”

Jentz says that he doesn’t have an estimate of when the restaurant will be ready to reopen, but hopes for a speedy turnaround.