Employees and customers sent scrambling when smoke filled Montrose area club

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A Montrose club, Eagle Houston, was the setting for a mid-afternoon fire Saturday. Four employees and a few customers were inside when smoke spread through the building.

No injuries were reported, but the building sustained fire, smoke and water damage.

The club replaced a previous occupant, 611, in the recent past.

A HFD District Chief said the fire appears to have started on an upper floor. Attic space had been converted into a storage area, and the material in it fueled the fire.

Jay Allen owns the property, and says about a half million dollars had been invested into the 1930's-era building, to bring it up to code.

"That included a state of the art sprinkler system," he said. "It was already installed. It was going to be connected to the city's water service in two weeks. The permit had been approved and we were just waiting for it to be hooked up by the city."

Arson investigators will determine how the fire began, and whether or not it was accidental.

Allen says he plans to rebuild.