LACROSSE, Wis. – An owner of the row of Pearl Street buildings hit by fire Monday, Eric Fortney, surveyed the damaged and expressed gratitude to the firefighters. “They deserve medals,” Fortney told a LaCrosse Tribune interviewer. “It was their quick reaction time that saved the building. We were minutes away from losing that whole half block.” Fortney called the response time “almost a miracle.” With a brother, Fortney owns most of the block as well as Brothers bar. The bar suffered heavy smoke damage. Due to limited hours during the Co-Vid pandemic, the bar was not open the night of the fire. It’s now closed for repairs, as is the more seriously damaged Casino bar next door

Brothers Fortney. Eric and Mark Fortney, circa 1990, created Brothers in the downtown LaCrosse bar district. It was their first bar venture. For a while there was a Brothers, subtitled the Birthday Bar,  on Winona’s Third Street. Their Brothers chain now stretches to 20 cities, mostly college towns.