On Friday, February 18, 2022, at 9:25 PM, the Latham Fire Department along with mutual aid from the Colonie duty crew, and the Boght Fire Company for their fast team was dispatched to 847 Loudon Rd. at JJ Rafferty‘s Bar and Grill for a reported structure fire.

The dispatcher notified the responding units that there was smoke in the building. Engine 419 and squad 9 quickly arrived on scene and had smoke coming from the wall and a smoke condition inside of the building. Car 28 arrived on scene and assume command. Firefighters used to thermal imaging camera and determined they had fire in the wall nearest to the bar. Firefighters began to pull way back the boards on the side of the building and discovered they had charring of the wood extending further along the wall. Command requested the firefighters from the crews on scene to get a sledgehammer and begin to remove a portion of the stone wall by the bar area.

A inch and three-quarter hand line was pulled to the front door of the establishment and was charged. Firefighters also pulled a water can from the engine and handed it off to the crews pulling apart the wall. Firefighters were able to find and extinguish the fire in the wall before it could spread to any other part of the building. Firefighters overhauled the scene for an extended period of time. As firefighters for breaking down the headlines water quickly froze to the ground, but firefighter spread ice melt on the ground to keep patrons and other firefighters safe.

Unfortunately, the well-known Bar and Grill was forced to shut down early that evening. Firefighters remained on scene for an extended period of time while Fire Investigator‘s looked into the cause of the fire. It was later determined that the fire was accidentally ignited by a cigarette butt that got under the front wood paneling on the building. The interior wall suffered moderate damage and the exterior portion of the wall suffered moderate damage also. No injuries were reported, and firefighters went back into service a few hours later.