Downtown Pizza ablaze on 4/20

Kay Bailey

She/Her

Editor-in-Chief

4/20/24

On Saturday, April 20th at around 9:30 PM the roof of the Flying Monkey’s adjoining building caught fire, quickly spreading to the roof of the now closed Downtown Pizza. While the Flying Monkey appeared relatively unaffected, the upper half of Downtown Pizza was engulfed in flames.

Fire departments from Plymouth, Campton, and Ashland arrived on the scene by 9:32. The firefighters from across Grafton County were able to initially subdue the flames, but they re-ignited from the smoking roof at 10:10, 10:21, and 10:40. The roof of the pizza restaurant was visibly sagging at 10:26 from the weight of the water being sprayed down onto it, and the roaring fire still persisting from the inside. While the flames seemed to be under control, the building was still substantially smoking at 11:30.

The source of the fire is unclear, but box office manager Alexis Sprout at the Flying Monkey confirmed to Reddit that the fire started in the theater’s adjoining building, then spread to Downtown Pizza. Sprout reported no damage to the Monkey, but confirmed that the adjacent building and Downtown would be a “total loss”.

Fire alarms interrupted tribute band Foreigners Journey. About 450 occupants were safely and efficiently ushered out of the building with no injuries or casualties. The band was in relatively good spirits for being kicked off stage mid-set in the wake of such a major fire. “Lots of bands can say they came and burned the house down. Well Foreigners Journey came to the Flying Monkey and burned the place down” said drummer Art Mambuca.

This is a developing story, more updates will follow.