“Ten more minutes and we wouldn’t have got out,” says James Booth, owner of MJ’s Corner Cafe, located at the Belmont Corners in Pleasant Mount.

Booth says he and the building’s other two occupants were sound asleep upstairs when the blaze broke out early Tuesday morning. “The family was sleeping. I just heard a noise. I don’t know what it was. It was like a bang,” he said, that awoke him. Then, he smelled smoke. All three of the building’s occupants, including a nine-month-old baby, escaped unharmed.

Booth, who’s owned the restaurant/bar for the past three years, called the building, “a total loss.”

Over a dozen local fire departments responded, along with area ambulance companies. At one point, there were as many as 75 firefighters on scene, says Bob Muller, Ambulance Lieutenant and Vice President of Pleasant Mt. Emergency Services, located just across the road from the restaurant. Toned out around 1:30 a.m., Muller was still on scene at 9 a.m. “The seat of the fire was hard to find. It was coming through the attic space, extremely hot and smoky,” he said. “It took a lot of water ...You’re probably looking at a million gallons of water,” he said, to put the fire out.

Volunteer fire fighter Alan Komar, with Pleasant Mount and Uniondale, says they were running 13 tankers, each hauling 2000 to 3000 gallons of water. Muller says there’s no way of telling how many times they refilled. Komar says it took about three-and-a-half hours to knock the blaze down.

On scene, State Police Fire Marshal Stephen Kaneski said it’ll be a few days before the cause of the fire is known. He said they had a collapse of two floors down to the basement. Trooper Kaneski said the bulk of the damage was in the kitchen area and below.

 Tuesday’s response to the blaze included Forest City Ambulance and Thompson Ambulance, along with the following fire departments: Pleasant Mount Emergency Services, Browndale, Forest City, Uniondale, Honesdale, Clifford, and tankers from Meredith, Thompson, Northern Wayne, Equinunk, Seelyville, Prompton, Waymart and Harford. Muller said William Walker Hose, Simpson was there for rehab and rescue assistance. 

Booth says the fire fighters were there within minutes. “They did a wonderful job — a wonderful job. It couldn’t be better, what they did. They did a fantastic job,” he said.
Standing outside his business Tuesday morning, Booth said he’s not sure if he’ll rebuild, “I don’t know at this point. I don’t have much insurance on it.”