A fire at Eugene restaurant Davis Northwest Smokehouse appears to have been started intentionally, according to investigators.
Fire Chief Mike Caven said crews extinguished the 2:30 a.m. fire on Saturday in about 30 minutes, which is when investigators found evidence that the fire was intentionally set, leading to an arson investigation.
“If you’ve got a warming fire or are just fooling around with fire, that’s reckless burning unless your recklessness ends up injuring someone,” said Caven. “But that’s generally the defining factor is there’s some bit of evidence that leads you to believe there was intent."
Restaurant owner Willie Davis said it’s hard to imagine moving back into the building after seeing the damage.
“But I don’t want to make any decisions too fast,” he said. “I kind of just want to take a breather, speak with my family and try to figure out what would be the next step.”
Caven said he hopes the restaurant, located at 394 Blair Blvd., recovers.
“The owner brought us some ribs while we were fighting the fire at Ninkasi a few months ago,” Caven said. “Everybody looked at me like I was crazy. Why is the chief handing firefighters ribs, but he was generous enough to give the firefighters some food.”
Davis said a friend has established a GoFundMe page to help cover recovery costs and get the business running again in some capacity.
“There are people out there who need help, and I was very skeptical about doing it at first, but I said ‘let’s go through with it’ because I need the help,” said Davis. “I lost a lot of equipment and people know how insurance companies are. They can take a while and don’t always give you what your equipment is worth.”
The investigation has been handed off to Eugene Police Department’s Arson Investigations Unit.
