Fire rips through Victory Brewing Co. in Kennett Square, displacing families from apartments above

Fire investigators on Tuesday were combing through the scene of a blaze that on Monday forced residents to flee the Magnolia Place apartments in Kennett Square, which also houses a Victory Brewing Co. brewpub on the ground floor.

No injuries were reported.

The brewpub had been closed when the first alarms were struck about 6:30 p.m. at the four-story complex on West Cypress Street.

Magnolia Place, which opened in 2015, has 33 apartments.

Flames raged, and at one point, a Chester County fire dispatcher said, “every piece of fire equipment in southern Chester County was out there.”

Red Cross communications director Dave Skutnik said Tuesday that the agency did not have to provide shelter or food vouchers to any of the building’s residents. All of the tenants had renter’s insurance, he said, which covered their immediate expenses after the fire.

Kennett Square Police Chief William Holdsworth said the building is structurally unstable, and cannot be occupied. The full extent of the damage was unclear Tuesday morning, as was the cause of the fire, pending a report from the Chester County Fire Marshal’s Office.

As crews from Peco assessed the scene, a steady stream of residents walked up to the ruined building, asking for updates about their apartments.

Among them were Sarah LaMack and Trish Desmond, who live near each other on the third floor.

LaMack, 30, said she knew something was wrong about 6:30 Monday night when the lights in her apartment started to flicker rapidly before going out. She ran into the hallway, yelling for her neighbors to get out of the building as quickly as possible.

Desmond, 54, said that quick thinking saved her: About a minute after the group had assembled outside, they saw an explosion erupt from the building’s first floor. An electrical transformer nearby was smoking shortly before the blast, Desmond said.

“Everyone has gone through the wringer these last 12 months, but we made it out safe,” LaMack said. “Sure, I’ll miss my stuff, but my neighbors all got out and that’s what matters.”

Both women were able to have fire crews retrieve important items from their apartments, including LaMack’s work laptop and Desmond’s medication.

They also were able to make accommodations for themselves. LaMack, who grew up in the area, will be staying with relatives and Desmond is moving into her new apartment a few weeks early.

Magnolia Place is filled with working professionals, Desmond said, most 30 or younger. There were no families with children that she knew of living in the complex.

One couple, Annie and Doug Roland, learned of the fire as they were hundreds of miles away, sitting in an airport in Colorado on a layover from a return flight from California.

They were inundated with texts of concern from their friends, asking if they were safe after seeing reports of the fire on the news, Annie Roland said.

It was midnight by the time they arrived home, and her immediate thought was of her cat, Socks. Firefighters let Roland into her apartment, where she found the pet hiding under a bed.

She noticed water damage to the hallways and some apartments, as well as doors broken down by firefighters during their initial sweeps of the building.

But she and her husband are more relieved than anything else, happy that their neighbors are safe.

“We’re just thankful that no one was hurt,” she said.

Victory announced on Instagram that it was working with local fire and police departments to gather information around what it called “this unfortunate incident.”

“We are not aware of any injuries that were uncovered during the initial investigation,” the post said. “We will continue to work with authorities and with the Red Cross to learn more about what occurred this evening and how we can help our neighbors in the building who have been displaced.”

Victory Brewing was founded by lifelong friends Bill Covaleski and Ron Barchet, who met on a school bus as fifth graders in 1973 and opened their first location in Downingtown in 1996, following up in 2014 with a brewery in Parkesburg.

The company, whose products are distributed to nine countries, over 30 states across the United States plus Washington and Puerto Rico, is constructing a large taproom at 18th Street and Ben Franklin Parkway in Center City Philadelphia that is expected to open in late 2021.