It being late Sunday night, Brad was the only person in the bar at the time. But still, with the fire and the fire trucks and all, he described the experience as “fucking scary” and is now thinking about getting some kind of fire insurance for the place. Brad said there were no injuries or deaths that he knew about, even though dozens of people “unofficially” live in the building. Brad spent the night in a nearby hotel and as of a few minutes ago, there was still no electricity at the bar. Live Bar needs electricity by Wednesday, because (you heard it here first) Australian instrumental rock trio Dirty Three are planning on playing a free show at Live Bar at around 10 that night, a warm-up for their scheduled gig at Yunfeng Theater on Thursday. So let’s hope they get this figured out — and be sure to check out Live Bar’s bathrooms: “I went back in last night,” Brad said, “and only the back part near the toilet smelled of smoke. It used to smell of urine, so this is actually an improvement.”
In other Sunday fire news, another one broke out yesterday morning at the Qianchen office building on Yan’an Lu at the Bund:
The fire was ignited on the first floor of the building, said the fire brigade, and then spread to the upper floors, filling the building with dense smoke.
Few people were inside the building when it caught fire. The firefighters rescued one person who was trapped in the fire and no one has been reported injured or dead in the fire.
A Chinese story on the fire said it occurred at 1 Yan’an Dong Lu, which appears to be the same address as the De la Coast club. Has anyone heard anything?
Live Bar, 721 Kunming Lu (near Tongbei Lu). 杨浦区昆明路721号,近通北路. Tel: 2833 6764.