
Photo: Wicked Local Staff Photo / David Sokol
A three-alarm fire at the Reading, Mass. club started in the early-morning hours of April 17 and ripped through the 75-year-old clubhouse, which housed a function hall, bar, dining room, locker rooms and offices. Club officials say they intend to rebuild.
Officials said the three-alarm fire that raced through the decades-old clubhouse of the Meadow Brook Golf Club in Reading, Mass. in the early morning hours of April 17 was sparked by faulty wiring, the Boston Globe reported. The blaze caused $1.5 million in damage. No one was injured.
C+RB reported on the fire April 17.

Photo: Reading (Mass.) Police Department
Firefighters were called to the club shortly before 4 a.m. after a neighbor saw flames in the clubhouse, Jennifer Mieth, a spokeswoman for the state fire marshal’s office, told the Globe. Investigators learned that the fire had begun in a void space in the ceiling, between the kitchen and an office, according to a joint statement from Reading Fire Chief Gregory J. Burns and State Fire Marshal Peter J. Ostroskey. The fire initially went undetected. But when it broke out of the void space, it traveled up the exterior of the building.
“Investigators suspect that the electrical fire disabled the fire alarm system,” the statement said. “By the time a neighbor noticed the fire and reported it, the fire already had a strong hold on the building.”
Mieth told the Globe the building was unoccupied at the time of the fire.
The clubhouse was more than 75 years old and contained the club’s function hall, bar, dining room, locker rooms, and offices, the Globe reported.
“We are grateful for the Reading Fire Department and first responders from Reading and surrounding towns who were able to work quickly to minimize the spread,” the Board wrote in a statement posted on the club’s website. “A longstanding part of the community, the building held memories for many.”
Kate Coppins, a member of the board, spoke of the loss to WHDH.
“Shock. Sadness. You know, I’ve been a longstanding member,” she said. “This is a club that’s been around since 1898. A lot of history, a lot of artifacts. All of the championship plaques, a lot of photos. It has our office, so it has all the history of Meadow Brook in there.”
No other damage was reported on the property as a result of the fire, the board said.
Club officials said they intend to rebuild, WHDH reported.
The building had been set to reopen May 4 if the governor’s order closing non-essential businesses had been lifted, but its future is now unclear, NBC Boston reported.
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