Oakdale Restaurant Swept
By Oil Blaze Yesterday
(9/20/1945)

LOSS PARTLY COVERED BY INSURANCE
Famous Inn Gutted By Fire Believed Caused By Oil Burner;
Firemen Battle Flames For Three Hours

(Courtesy of the West Sayville/Oakdale Fire Department)

  The Stirrup-Cup Castle at Oakdale, one of Long Island’s most attractive and famous restaurants, was damaged beyond repair late yesterday afternoon by fire believed to have started in or near an oil burner which had just been turned on for the fall season.  West Sayville firemen battled for nearly three hours to save the popular eating place, located on the north side of Montauk Highway, but shortly before six o’clock last night, only the brick veneer walls, part of the roof, and a completely gutted interior remained. 

   Adolph Klug, president of Stirrup Cup Castle, Inc., and its genial host for a number of years, said that he valued the buildings, its contents, including equipment and a large liquor supply, at between $50,000 and $60,000 and he said he was covered by approximately $30,000 in insurance.  The property is owned by H. Raymond Brown, retired production manager for the Bickford Restaurant chain, who is now residing in Florida.

   Mr. Klug said he had called in a plumber during the afternoon to turn the burner on for the season.  Shortly after the plumber left, Julius Romano of 74 Lincoln Avenue, Sayville, who was chef at the restaurant, was leaving the door of his kitchen to go to his automobile parked nearby when he noticed smoke pouring out of the cellar door.  He shouted to Harvey Anderson of Central Islip, the bartender, and the two men entered the cellar to discover the cause of the smoke.  They ran into huge clouds of smoke, so thick that within a matter of a few seconds they were forced to leave the cellar.

   At about that time, Mr. Klug had arrived from his upstairs apartment.  Arthur Premm, proprietor of a gasoline service station nearby, also saw the smoke and rushed to the scene.  He picked up a garden hose on the restaurant lawn and attempted to fight flames which by then were licking along the beams of the ground floor.

   West Sayville firemen were summoned and responded immediately with five pieces of apparatus, but by then the flames had roared through the ground floor and were reaching upwards along the walls.

   Four lines of hose were worked by the firemen, who were joined by T/Sgt. Don Fraser and Cpl. Malcolm Braley of the 110^th Air Force Base Unit, stationed at Mitchel Field, who were driving westward along Montauk Highway in an Army ambulance and promptly pitched in to help.

   It was all to no avail, however, and throughout the three-hour long struggle huge clouds of dark, oily smoke poured from the windows and through the roof, greatly hampering the work of the firemen.  About a half-hour after the fire was first discovered, flames began to shoot through the roof, which was covered by tile-shaped, heavy tarpaper.

   The entire interior of the building, which was built some 10 years ago by Joseph Hoberg of Oakdale, was destroyed by the blaze.  Tables in the once beautiful dining salon were overturned and burned an all the rest of the valued equipment, including food and liquor, was destroyed.  Huge holes gaped in the roof, and once section collapsed while firemen were at their busiest.

   Mr. Klug said he had intended to close the restaurant for the winter months on November 1^st.

   About six patrons were in the dining room at the time the fire was discovered but experienced no difficulty in leaving.  The blaze attracted a good many spectators and caused something of a traffic problem on the Montauk Highway.