After losing all of their possessions and two pets, the couple said they’ve been “blown away” by the response of the community with its love and support. Using the analogy of the mythical creature, the phoenix, they said they plan to rise from the ashes at the former Wheel Inn and turn tragedy into art.

Firefighters from all around woke up, suited up and came to Tupper Lake to evacuate nearby homes, keep the fire from spreading at 34 Main St. to a nearby gas station and put water on the massive column of flames until the sun rose.

“It was very intense,” TLVFD Chief Royce Cole said.

The blaze was extinguished at around 6 a.m.

A fire destroyed a home and workshop at 34 Main St. in Tupper Lake Saturday morning. Eleven fire departments battled the fire at the former Wheel Inn, built in the 1800s. (Provided photo — Jim Lanthier)

“We have a great department and obviously, the help that came from Franklin County all played a big part in it,” Cole said. “Overall a great effort from everyone.”

He said the cause of the fire is under investigation by Franklin County.

Dan said they are giving a “deep, heartfelt thanks” to the firefighters, rescue squad and police who responded, first trying to save their house and then saving the Junction.

The couple are well-known in Tupper Lake and Saranac Lake, they’re often seen working on the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Ice Palace each year, supporting local musicians and venues and helping others.

Dan is a blacksmith who ran Hammersong Architectural Metal and Design out of their home at 34 Main. His work can be seen all around the Adirondacks.

Their daughter’s boyfriend, Cruz Carriere, created a GoFundMe donation page for the Kings at tinyurl.com/yc5n2b4c, which had raised more than $23,000 by Sunday afternoon.

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The firefight

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A tenant in the home woke up to the sound of glass breaking and one of Dan’s gas bottles exploding. They saw the fire and got out safely, Dan said.

When Cole and the fire department arrived on scene, the fire was already “advanced,” blowing out of the second story windows.

Within 15 minutes of their arrival, the building collapsed completely, likely because of its age, Cole said. Since all of the occupants had reportedly gotten out, no firefighters were going into the building at that time.

Local photographer Jim Lanthier caught the moment the building collapsed on video at tinyurl.com/3hj3yfhb.

Cole said that, fortunately, firefighters were still arriving and setting up when the building collapsed, so no one was dangerously close.

The intensity of the heat during the collapse melted the tail lights of the TLVFD tower ladder trunk parked across the street.

Cole said two nearby houses and the Larkin’s gas station across Pine Street were all smoking from the heat. So Cole put out an “all-county” alert, which calls for mutual aid from all Franklin County fire departments. Ten of them responded — Saranac Lake, Paul Smiths-Gabriels, Lake Placid, St. Regis Falls, Owls Head-Mountain View, Duane, Bangor, Malone, Constable and Bombay.

Cole said the roof and shingles of Larkin’s new street-side gazebo were starting to melt, as was the Sunoco gas station sign and the main building itself.

“It definitely was a concern,” Cole said.

Firefighters went into “full defense mode,” Cole said. They were able to keep the flames from spreading and kept the gas station from also igniting.

There were five hydrants nearby, but Cole said they were all tied into one water main, so they could only really use one. Firefighters had to draw water from a nearby creek, too.

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Community support and a phoenix

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Dan and Jen were out of town at an Artist-Blacksmith Association of North America convention in Pennsylvania and were set to compete on Saturday morning when they got a call from a neighbor at 3 a.m. They neighbor was “distraught,” watching their house burn.

The Kings packed up their tools and came back to Tupper Lake to find their home a total loss.

“We’ve accepted that there’s nothing. Anything that we find will be a treasure,” Dan said.

He said he lost 32 years of metalworking tools. Jen said they plan to sift through the rubble to reclaim the metal anvils and hammer heads.

“We’re going to make art. We’re rising like the phoenix,” she said.

She plans to turn the ash into glazes for pottery. Dan plans to turn the surviving metal into sculpture. They’ll need to put up a protective fence around the property and plan to get friends to paint a mural on it.

The town lost a piece of its history last night, too, they said, and is grieving its loss with them.

Dan said it is hard to have room for sadness with the outpouring of love and support they’re seeing. He said all of the people showing up with donations and hugs have blunted their sorrow, humbled and inspired them.

Jen called it a “beautiful dissonance” — trauma balanced by love.

“I’m sad. I’m shaken. My heart is broken in so many different ways. But all the pieces are there and everybody is helping me hold them so I can put them back together,” Dan said.

Their cat, Prints, and rabbit, Sr. Chester Bun-Buns, died in the fire, but no humans were harmed. They lost precious photos, family memories and memories, but they said they still have their family and friends.

“Love wins. It’s better than insurance,” Dan said.

In the wake of the fire, people have been sharing their memories of Jen and Dan opening up their home for all.

“36 Main St. has played an iconic role in this small town over the years,” Carriere wrote in the GoFundMe page. “Yet, this building was so much more than that to a select few. The King family called it home. A home, where Dan and Jen shared the spirit and love that it takes to build one, with anyone and everyone they knew.”

Friends also began circulating a document with a list of essentials to be donated to replace what was lost.

“I always had a home away from home at 36 Main St. where I could walk in unannounced, anytime, even years after moving away from Tupper and receive the warmest of welcomes from whoever was home,” Renee Cloutier wrote in her GoFundMe donation. “In addition to being one of Tuppers oldest buildings that hosted many distinct businesses, a fixture of downtown Main Street. so many memories from my own teenage years were formed here. It’s going to be hard to drive through town without that landmark.”

Volunteers from the Northeastern New York Chapter of the American Red Cross provided immediate emergency financial aid to the tenant after the fire, as well as offering emotional support, comfort kits containing personal care items, and health services.

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Long history

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The building was built around the turn of century in 1900. Over the years it was Kiklevich’s Department Store, the Kiklevich Hotel, a liquor store, a barber shop and — most famously, the Wheel Inn from the early 1960s to 1999.

The Wheel Inn was a legendary bar owned by Irene LeBlanc. LeBlanc’s niece, Michelle LeBlanc Blair, owns P-2’s Irish Pub across the street. On the night of the fire, Michelle opened P-2s to give the firefighters a place to decompress.

Irene’s brother — Michelle’s father — owned a bar across the street and the siblings were very competitive, Dan said. To get a leg up on the familial competition, she brought in go-go dancers to the inn during hunting season, who danced on a PVC pipe, Michelle said.

Michelle remembers being on a beach in Hawaii talking with a couple who said they knew of Tupper Lake. When the name of the Wheel Inn came up, though, she said the wife slammed her arms down on her chair and said “I know the Wheel Inn” with frustration in her voice.

Michelle said her grandmother lived in an apartment upstairs, but when she visited, her father always told her to not go into the bar downstairs because of the family competition. But Irene would always try to invite her inside.

She said The Wheel Inn was a place which hosted music, and which Irene dealt with unruly customers by hitting them with a stick.

Michelle said Joan Rivers once stayed there and showed up out front in a limousine.

When the Kings bought the building in 2006, it had been empty for several years. Inside, there were pigeons, drug paraphernalia and spraypaint. The basement had several feet of standing water.

“We said, ‘we love it. We’ll take it!'” Dan said.

They removed 19 tons of debris and made it their own. Over the years they hosted ping-pong tournaments, bluegrass bands and art shows there; raised their daughters Kelsey and Alamanda and installed a blacksmithing shop in the backyard.

Dan would use his welding skills to help the contractors and loggers fix their tools. They said people would just walk in. Jen remembers coming down one morning to find an old Frenchman standing in their kitchen saying in broken English, “I need your husband to fix something.”

“I felt like the town doctor,” Dan said.

When their daughter’s friends fought with their parents and wanted to run away, the Kings would set them up a tent in their backyard and call the parents to tell them that their kid would be OK.

They’ve always had an extra room available for anyone fallen on hard times and working on themselves to stay in and they said that they don’t judge people on their past.

Dan encouraged everyone to get involved in their community, in whatever little way they can.

“We can’t expect the world to become a better place unless we contribute to helping each other,” Dan said.

Dan said he had purchased a new shop location recently, but hadn’t moved into it yet. A friend is letting them stay at their camp until July.

Jen said ever since they moved to town, she’s thought they might move elsewhere some day. Now, after losing their home, she said she wants to stay in the Tri-Lakes forever, after seeing the community rally to support them.