Rare Bird Brewpub is expected to be closed two to three months for clean-up and smoke remediation after a fire started in the middle of the night outside the brewery. The fire - the unknown cause of which is still being investigated - caught the brewery's keg corral outside on fire, exploding several kegs and spreading inside to the bar area before interior sprinklers put it out.

Rare Bird co-owner Tina Schuett spoke with The Ticker at the scene Thursday as crews were beginning clean-up. While early reports blamed a propane tank explosion for the incident, Schuett says that isn't accurate. Rather, a fire started outside in the area of the keg corral next to the back of the building, which contained numerous pressurized kegs with rubber coating. The rubber coating got super heated, causing multiple kegs to explode - including one that shot across the parking lot and struck a Midtown condo building. A few propane tanks were in the corral, but those are designed to release pressure when they heat so they didn't explode, Schuett says.

Fire Marshall Keith Fritz confirms no propane tanks exploded and that the kegs superheated and "blew up like ballons." The Traverse City Fire Depatment is still investigating the fire. "We haven't determined a cause yet," Fritz says. 

The fire spread inside to the bar area, where four sprinklers went off and helped put out the blaze. While Rare Bird avoided fire and water damage throughout most of the brewery, "it's the smoke that's going to get us," Schuett says. "Every surface has to be cleaned from top to bottom." Thankfully, the brewery was unoccupied at the time and no injuries resulted from the fire or blasts.

Restoration experts put an estimated timeline for clean-up at two to three months, Schuett says. The popular downtown brewery, located on Lake Avenue off Cass Street, will be closed during that time period.