The Full Throttle Saloon known as the "world's largest" biker bar and subject of a reality television series was destroyed by fire in the overnight hours on Tuesday morning.
The watering hole hosted thousands of bikers and partygoers who make an annual pilgrimage to Sturgis, South Dakota. During the most recent rally in August, over 500,000 bikers roared into the small town that only has roughly 6,800 residents year-round.
The bar was filled to its wooden rafters drawing 15,000 people on a rally night, owner Michael Ballard said on the bar's website.
The cause of the fire is unknown, said the Sturgis Volunteer Fire Department. Some witnesses said the fire was strongest by the distillery attached to the saloon.
Volunteer Fire Department Assistant Chief Shawn Barrows said the call that the building was on fire came in just after midnight.
"It was not fully engulfed at that time," he said. "We saw heavy smoke coming out of the eaves of soffits of the main building."
Barrows said that the cause of the fire is still unknown.
"There was a heavy body of fire over in the northwest corner. That's where I hear the distillery portion was, so whether it was caused by the distillery or not, I don't know."
Barrows said he was told by a Meade County Sheriff's deputy that there were 500 gallons of grain alcohol in the building.
Video posted on the fire department's Facebook page showed dramatic footage of flames engulfing the bar's frame. The bar's massive structure was reduced to charred, smoking debris.
There were no injuries reported. One person was asleep on the property when the fire erupted but woke up and escaped to safety, the fire department said.
The bar mascot, a donkey named Emmett, was not injured either, KOTA reported.
"Right now I have to process what has happened and then figure out the future," said Ballard in a statement Wednesday, Billboard reported. "To everyone who made the Full Throttle become the special destination we all came to love, simply thank you.
"I'm kind of sick to my stomach," saloon artist Dean Mauldein said to KOTA. "I've been here 11 years. Hopefully we will rebuild."
The bar was also the site of a truTV series Full Throttle Saloon, which aired for several seasons starting in 2009. The series will return to the Destination America channel in November.
Source: KOTATV.com, Sturgis Volunteer Fire Department, Billboard