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Fairfield Skyline rebuilding months after fire ripped through the restaurant

Construction workers are in the early stages of rebuilding the Skyline Chili Restaurant that burned down last year in Fairfield. GREG LYNCH / STAFF

Construction workers are in the early stages of rebuilding the Skyline Chili Restaurant that burned down last year in Fairfield. GREG LYNCH / STAFF
Business
By
March 27, 2019
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Fairfield Skyline Chili owner Dennis Kurlas promised he would rebuild his popular restaurant after a destructive fire — and that process started last week.

“It’s our livelihood. This is what we do,” Kurlas told the Journal-News last September, just hours after fire destroyed his family’s restaurant.

RELATED: Fairfield Skyline Chili owner vows to rebuild after massive fire destroys restaurant 

The fire started in the kitchen of the Skyline around 2:30 a.m. on Sept. 26, 2018. Flames were seen through the roof when Fairfield police Officer Jake Hauer drove by the restaurant at 7105 Dixie Highway. He immediately called dispatch.

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

It took firefighters more than two hours to extinguish the fire, and the roof over the kitchen area collapsed just as crews were ready to breach the front door, according to fire officials.

No one was inside the restaurant at the time of the fire, and there were no injuries reported to first responders.

The restaurant, at the corner of Dixie Highway and Hicks Boulevard, had been open for more than 20 years at this site, Kurlas said, and previously located across Dixie Highway.

MORE: Free cheese coney at Skyline Chili to celebrate Reds’ Opening Day 

The wreckage of the former restaurant was cleared, and this past week crews started the reconstruction process.

The Kurlas family was recognized in 2017 by Skyline for 50 years with the Cincinnati chili company.

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

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Michael D. Pitman has been a reporter in southwest Ohio since 1999. He's covered local governments in Warren and Butler counties, as well as state and national issues. He currently covers the cities of Fairfield and Hamilton.