A fire has shut down a popular cedar rapids restuarant and damaged a local bar thats just next door. Door. Right now fire officials are trying to figure out what caused flames to destroy the roof at rileys caf. Cafe. The Fire Department sent every truck and firefighter they had to battle the fire in 90degree heat. It happened right ater 330 and closed the busy road during the afternoon commute. Rileys was closed a manager at moose mcduffys was there while firefighters were working on the buildings and talked to both owners. Same spot same location meeting spot and have family gatherings here its quite a loss, such an iconic restaurant restaurant. It was scary seeing the firemen with axes and chainsaws and wondering if that was my roof to their roof. Roof. One firefighter had to be sent to the hospital for hes expected to be okay. The Salvation Army was on scene handing out water and gatorade to firefighters. Investigators say the fire started near a ventilation fan. Remember when you s
Thunderstorms are threatening to drop heavy rain in parts of iowa that dont need it. It. Weatherfirst chief meteorologist terry swails is tracking tonights potential for an afternoon fire at a popular cedar rapids restaurant forced thousands of motorists to find an alternate route downtown. Downtown. Fox 28 news anchor kevin barry talked to the owner of rileys cafe and shows us the struggles firefighters faced on scene. Scene. Not many people saw flames from rileys three alarm fire. Fire. But nearly everyone has rileys about 15 years ago but theres been a restaurant in this now charred store front for three decades. Decades. Same spot same location its been a meeting spot where people come and have business meetings and have family gatherings here its quite a loss, such an iconic restaurantcedar rapids finest sent every truck they had with about 30 fighters cycling through chasing flames through rileys roof. Roof. Wayne winn owns mcduffys next door his manager called in the fire. Fire.
Hiring more troopers is now. 267 is low, i would like to see a lot more, but every director of a state police would like to see more officers. Van berkum says the patrol is planning an advertisement blitz to attract candidates to a Law Enforcement academy next year. Where he hopes to see a graduating class of up to 25 new troopers something he hopes to start doing annually. Our goal is every year, and hopefully do it in the springtime, graduating, thats when high schools are getting out, that way people will know that Law Enforcement is holding an academy, so they can prepare their resumes knowing that we are going to have an academy. Right now there are also more drivers on iowas roads than ever before. Data from the Iowa Department of transportatio n shows the number of licensed drivers in iowa increased by 466thousand in the past ten years, to more than 2point2 million drivers. Conrad says its obvious commute making the need to hire more troopers, especially here in eastern iowa, mo