The club’s kitchen will be closed for two weeks due to extensive damage from water used to extinguish the blaze. Employees were boiling butter in a pan when it overflowed, igniting a large fire that spread into the ventilation system and to the roof. The clubhouse underwent a $1.5 million renovation earlier this year.

Bloomington (Ill.) Country Club was damaged on November 19 when a kitchen fire spread to the roof, but no injuries were reported, the Bloomington-based Pantagraph reported.

McLean County Health Department sanitarians estimated the kitchen will be closed for two weeks because of extensive damage from water used to extinguish the fire, said Kera Brossette of the health department.

Firefighters were dispatched at 8:05 a.m. to the fire where they saw light smoke. Bloomington Fire Capt. Brad McCollum said the fire started in the kitchen when employees were boiling butter in a pan, the Pantagraph reported.

“The pan overflowed, igniting a large fire,” said McCollum, adding the two kitchen workers were unsuccessful in putting out the fire using handheld extinguishers. “They evacuated the building without activating the kitchen’s fire extinguishing system located in the ventilation hood over the stove.”

The fire spread into the ventilation system and roof over the kitchen on the north side of the Tudor-style structure, the Pantagraph reported.

All off-duty Bloomington firefighters were called in after the fire spread to the roof. “We had some challenges because of modifications to the building over the years,” said McCollum.

Firefighters used two ladder trucks to reach the roof where they cut ventilation holes above the kitchen area in the north end of the building, the Pantagraph reported.

“We have some structural damage, but our guys did a great job containing the fire,” said McCollum.

“We had to put a lot of people on this fire in a hurry. If you don’t do that, you have a possibility of losing a building,” Bloomington Fire Chief Mike Kimmerling said.

The fire, which was out by 9:15 a.m., spread into the second-floor roof area, and the building sustained heavy fire, water and smoke damage. No damage estimate was available by press time, the Pantagraph reported.

Earlier this year, the club underwent a $1.5 million project to renovate the clubhouse, redesign the first floor and add larger meeting rooms, a restaurant and new lounge. The building, dedicated in 1930, has been expanded several times, more than doubling the original structure, the Pantagraph reported.