SUSQUEHANNA -- It took only minutes for the flames to destroy seven years of hard work.
Fire swept through Ryan Dubas's beer store in Susquehanna borough Friday night.
A day later he returned trying to make sense of what happened.
“It's tough. It was just my wife and I when I started and you know, it's tough,” said Dubas.
With the fire went a little of the borough's history. The building that held Drinker Creek Beverage is believed to be more than a century old.
Neighbors explained that while watching the fire was awful, seeing Ryan's reaction was worse.
“When Ryan first came, he came running down the street like he was gonna run in there, and he couldn't go in there,” said Dave Hankey.
People in the area say this is a big loss. Not only did Drinker Creek supply local bars, but it was one of the few businesses owned by a young person.
“You finally have a young person trying to get a business off the ground, and he's been running it successfully for seven years, and we don't have a lot of business in this community. It is tough to see this,” said Assistant Fire Chief Alec Mazikewich, Suquehanna Borough Fire Department.
While many folks are rooting for Ryan to rebuild, right now he's not sure.
“I loved doing what I did, you know there is no doubt about that, but we just have to, one step at a time figure out what happened,” he said.
One firefighter was taken to the hospital and treated for heat exhaustion.
Investigators don't suspect arson but said with so much wreckage, finding the exact cause may take some time.
