Jim’s Steaks owner says fire could lead to ‘total loss,’ vows to rebuild

A fire on Friday badly damaged the iconic cheesesteak shop Jim’s Steaks at Fourth and South Streets, and owner Ken Silver said the century-old building could be “a total loss.”

Silver said he needed to get inside the building — last renovated five years ago — to assess the damage, but he vowed to rebuild the shop, which his father cofounded in 1976.

The fire was under control by shortly after 1:30 p.m. Friday, more than four hours after first responders arrived at the scene. Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel said firefighters arrived around 9:15 a.m. because of reports of some downed wires. They were met with smoke, and more units were called throughout the morning to aid in the response.

Thiel said more than 125 firefighters, medics, and other support personnel, as well as 57 vehicles, were on the scene of the fire, made all the more difficult to manage because of high temperatures, making the blaze equivalent to a three-alarm fire. By 11:30 a.m., the department had additional fire companies at the scene to swap out the first responding units in need of rest after the long exposure to heat.

Thiel added he was “concerned about the structural stability of this building,” and the smoky condition inside made it difficult to find the seat of the fire.

“They just couldn’t get to it right away,” echoed Silver. “It was probably somewhere in some little space where those wires that were installed who knows how many years ago were.”

Evidence points to fire coming from the heating ventilation air conditioning system, which Silver said Friday afternoon had been malfunctioning.

Christina Lawlor, an assistant manager at Jim’s, said she arrived to a hot shop at 7:15 a.m. — usually the air conditioning is running — but nothing else seemed to be out of the ordinary until after 8:30 a.m. when it started to “smell like electrical,” she told reporters on the scene.

“We look up and we seen smoke like from where the walk-in is, we see smoke pouring down,” said Lawlor, who instructed all employees to evacuate, which they did, while she shut down the main breaker box and called the fire department, which arrived in minutes.

No one else was in the stories above Jim’s, which are used for storage, and Eye’s Gallery next door was also empty. Gallery owner Julia Zagar said they don’t open until 11 a.m. on Fridays.

A distraught Zagar said she doesn’t know the extent of the damage, but “water was going in and smoke was coming out” and it’s likely some irreplaceable materials were lost. She’s taking a wait-and-see approach, but would like to stay in the gallery that’s been there for 53 years.

On Friday night, the city’s Office of Emergency Management said a reception center for residents who lost power had been established at the Starr Garden Recreation Center along the 600 block of Lombard Street and would remain open until midnight. Residents can use the center to charge devices such as phones or to cool off, official said.

Peco said more than 300 customers were without power around the fire scene, and service was expected to be restored early Saturday morning.

Asked if he would rebuild, Silver replied: “Absolutely, absolutely. I owe it to my father’s legacy. I owe it to the street and I owe it to Philadelphia. We are too important a business to go away and I truly view it that way.”

Staff photographer Alejandro A. Alvarez and staff writer Robert Moran contributed to this article.