Firefighters battle the fire at the vacant InCahoots building in Mission Valley

SAN DIEGO – Firefighters were on scene at the vacant Mission Valley building that formerly housed the popular InCahoots Dance Hall and Saloon when the building burst into flames again on Christmas morning, less than two months after a fire at the same location shortly before broke out in October.

Battalion Chief Jeff Mitchell of the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department said the fire broke out around 10 a.m. Wednesday in the long-vacant building at 5373 Mission Center Road.

“The entire building, which is completely fenced in, was enveloped,” Mitchell said when they arrived.

Firefighters will remain at the scene for several hours on Wednesday to carry out clean-up operations and ensure the fire is fully extinguished. The emergency services were able to protect the surrounding buildings and trees from further fire damage.

“No one was in the building and firefighters were spraying water on it from the outside,” Mitchell said.

The building is owned by Bridge California, LLC, but has been vacant for nearly six years. CBS 8 visited the abandoned building in November 2023 as part of our “Working For You” series featuring stories about vacant and abandoned buildings in San Diego County.

CBS 8 archives show San Diego firefighters also responded to a fire outside the building in 2020, and we found several Get it Done reports about encampments on the property in recent years.

A fire broke out in the abandoned country bar and nightclub on October 26, 2024. Flames towered over the building and thick columns of smoke rose from the roof. This fire prompted a two-alarm response from San Diego Fire-Rescue, with more than 100 firefighters dispatched to the scene.

“It broke my heart. There are so many good memories there and I met so many friends there,” said Nancy Brady in October, who frequented InCahoots before it closed in 2018. “We spent a lot of time there on Friday and Saturday nights. I’m not a big drinker, but I used to dance a lot.”

Meanwhile, Brady still holds on to her memories of the place. She showed CBS 8 a denim jacket she purchased from InCahoots more than twenty years ago.

“I love it and every time I see it it brings back a lot of memories,” Brady said. “Like I said, it’s heartbreaking to see what happens to it.”

RELATED: What’s going on with Mission Valley’s old country bar InCahoots?

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