NAGS HEAD, N.C. (WAVY) — It was Pamlico Jack’s, and before that, Penguin Isle. Thursday, it was on fire.
Now, it’s a pile of ashes.
Fire crews from Nags Head and around the Outer Banks participated in a training exercise Thursday that involved the controlled burn of the building at 6708 South Croatan Highway. Chopper 10 was at the scene and captured footage of the burn.
The Dare County Tourism Board purchased the property in 2019 and included the land in its plan to create a 48,000-square-foot events center.
“We did our due diligence on what would it take to convert this 11,000-square foot building into an events center,” said the board’s executive director Lee Nettles, “and it was just too cost-prohibitive to try and take the old building and make it new again. You hit a point where it just makes more sense to go with a new building.”
Nettles said the Nags Head fire chief coordinated with other departments, including Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Collington and Hatteras Island to involve them as well. Chopper 10 video showed at least three tower trucks with their ladders extended battling the blaze.
“They’re all on the same radio waves,” he said. “And although we’re spread out over 100 miles, the Outer Banks is a collection of small towns and villages, so there’s very much a mentality of cooperation and working together.
Nettles told us he felt a mix of emotions watching the burn.
“You’re looking back to the past and just thinking about all those years and all those visitors and all the memories that the building generated,” he said. “But then you’re also looking forward and seeing it as an important step for the future development of the events center — and then at the same time, you’re struck by just like that present moment and the firefighters and the sense of community.
“At the same time, it was a massive fire, so it’s not often that you’re kind of safely ringside at something like that.”