Sep 7, 2018 2 min read

The fire that damaged Hot Rod’s restaurant in Waynesburg early Thursday started around the rear air conditioning unit and will be ruled an accident, the two investigators looking into the blaze said.

Waynesburg police Officer Tom Ankrom said Friday he and state police Trooper James Garlick, the fire marshal investigating the blaze, pinpointed the origin of the blaze to around the air conditioning unit in the rear of the building.

The unit was on brackets and caught fire before falling onto wooden pallets near a garbage dumpster. The fire spread to the building, damaging a bathroom in the bar area. The rest of the building sustained smoke and water damage.

Garlick said the fire will be ruled accidental, but he did not know if it was the air conditioning unit or the electrical wiring feeding it power that sparked the fire.

“I can’t be 100 percent sure if it was the unit that malfunctioned or if it was an electrical malfunction,” Garlick said. “It won’t get any more detailed than that. There is no criminal act, as far as we’re considered.”

The restaurant’s owner, Rodney Phillips, said Thursday he plans to reopen the restaurant, although he did not indicate if he would have to move to another location.

Staff writer Bob Niedbala contributed to this story.