Conley Resort Inn regains its stride after last summer's damaging fire

While plumes of noxious black smoke filled the sky and flames charred a portion of the family-owned Conley Resort Inn on a sunny Friday last July, owner Wayne Conley was thinking about how to take care of business for the next day.

"The place is still flaming, and we were converting a garage to offices," Conley said. "We were open for business the next day. The shock of it didn't hit me for a couple of days."

Business manager Renee Iannotti said she and another employee were on a cell phone talking to customers and trying to find rooms for other guests while firefighters from 11 companies battled the blaze.

The July 27 electrical fire destroyed a 7,000-square-foot area that contained a bar, restaurant, party and banquet rooms and a receptionist area. No one was injured, but the damage was estimated at $1.5 million.

For a business that was open the next day, it should be no surprise the resort along Route 8 in Penn Township, Butler County, is nearly back at full speed less than a year after the blaze.

The repairs are nearly complete, and Conley says they should be done by the end of the month. The fire stayed mostly in the portion of the resort that was a renovated barn.

Fire companies were able to keep the fire from spreading. A concrete wall separated the pool and waterslides from the fire. The wood railing that skirts the balcony around the pool and waterslides still has singe marks from where ashes from the fire landed.

Conley said he and some resort employees tried to battle the fire with a garden and irrigation hose from the golf course.

"Even when we were trying to fight the fire, we still felt helpless," Conley said.

Conley said all the linens had to be washed and the walls around the pool washed and the walls in the rooms had to be repainted.

"It was just a matter of taking care of business — taking care of a problem," Conley said. "This just happened to be a very big problem. You just do what you got to do."

And for the last 11 months that has meant working to rebuild the business that has been in the family since his father bought the golf course and hotel just after World War II.

"The whole thing has been tough," Conley said. "Every step of the way has been a new endeavor."

Conley still vividly remembers the morning of July 27.

"It was around 10 a.m. The cook in the kitchen came running out and said the electrical box was sparking," Conley said. "I shut off as many breakers as I could, and it was still crackling. So, I ran downstairs and threw the main breaker."

Firefighters arrived quickly after a call to 911, but the fire was difficult to locate and contain, Conley said..

The fire had started in the kitchen in the renovated barn, which was built in the 1920s and was extensively remodeled in the 1960s. Two silos that had been attached to the barn and remained standing after the fire, have been torn down.

"The old silos were part of the charm of the place," he said.

It's been hard work to get the resort back to full speed, Conley said.

"Going into business for yourself means working a half day," Conley said. "It doesn't matter whether it's the first 12 hours or the second 12 hours.

"Come the first of November, I might take a week off," Conley said.

Iannotti, an 18-year employee of Conley's, said the fire was an emotional experience.

"I grew up across the street," she said. "So it was like a part of me burning … It was hard to watch."

She said the next day she got to work at 5:30 a.m. and started working, "without missing a beat."

It could be a year yet before the resort recovers some of the business that was lost because of the fire, Iannotti said.

"It was scary — just to watch everything," said Dawn George, a bartender who has worked at Conley's for eight years. Not knowing what would happen, George "worried whether I still had a job."

She said it seemed like a long time until the renovations were done, but "considering the amount of work done, I guess it was pretty fast."