'Just a staple of the community': Historic Wisconsin supper club, Lake House Inn, destroyed in fire

ROCK COUNTY, Wis. (CBS 58) -- A Rock County community is mourning the loss of a long-time supper club.

The Lake House Inn near Edgerton was destroyed by a fire around 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 4.

Neighbors reported seeing flames coming out of the back kitchen door of the structure.

According to Chief Randall Pickering with Lakeside Fire-Rescue, 10 agencies from four counties responded as mutual aid, along with 14 tanker trucks of water.

Fire crews battled the blaze for several hours, and two firefighters were shocked by electrical equipment.

They were treated on-scene, and Chief Pickering said they're okay.

The nearly 200-year-old building is a total loss, but the community won't lose the memories they made.

"It was all local people that ran it, that knew about it, attached to it," said Josh Axcell, whose family ran the Lake House Inn from 1990 until 2016. "Seeing it gone now is tough."

The Axcells were one of several families to build the supper club's history.

"We lived up in the apartment above the dining room, played in all the old hotel rooms up there; they were our playrooms," said Geri Furseth, whose parents managed the building in the 1960s. "We've had wedding receptions here in our family and our rehearsal dinner for our wedding, and lots of family dinners."

It was a home base on Lake Koshkonong.

"It's one of those buildings in a community where you dread when you hear that address," said Chief Pickering.

He said the love for the building made for an emotional firefight.

"The actual original hotel building here is older than the state of Wisconsin itself," Pickering said.

Neighbors hope some parts of the original structure can be saved.

"It was just a staple of the community," Axcell said.

The Wisconsin State fire marshal is investigating the cause of the fire.

It was the second major fire in this area in two days - a house in Milton burned down Saturday night.

The same team is investigating both fires, and Chief Pickering said there is no evidence that the two incidents are connected.