No Death in blazing fire that destroyed Fairbanks

FAIRBANKS — Firefighters searched the ashes and remains of a building on Old Airport Road and found no fatalities, University fire Chief Doug Schrage said. 

University Fire Department responded to the blazing structure fire at about 5:11 p.m. Thursday. The fire destroyed the building that has housed a number of gentleman’s clubs, including 49er Club, The Lonely Lady, Show Girls and more recently The Showboat. The building has been unoccupied since The Showboat closed. 

Schrage said the cause of the fire is unknown and that the investigation was handed over to the state fire marshal and the Fairbanks fire marshal, who will investigate the fire. 

Capt. Sean Aldrich said the fire was extinguished by 9 a.m. Friday. 

“There was building collapse and burning material underneath that made it hard to extinguish,” Aldrich said. “They worked on it all night, digging in the fire looking for hot spots.”

Aldrich said two teams of four University Fire Department firefighters took turns working throughout the night. 

Thursday’sblaze wasn’t the first fire on the property dating to last summer. Two sheds have burned at different times, and the building next door also has caught fire. 

Aldrich did not have information on the cause of these previous fires at the time of the interview.