Fire damages long-shuttered Red's Recovery Room in Cotati

Fire caused damage to the storied but long-shuttered Red’s Recovery Room bar in Cotati early Tuesday morning.

Cotati police initially reported the fire at 8175 Gravenstein Highway west of Highway 101 around 1:30 a.m.

Fire officials found smoke snowing and flames coming from the back of the building.

Firefighters put out the flames, but were recalled around 4 a.m. for a flare-up, according to fire dispatch.

The building, home to the locally famous dive bar, hasn’t been occupied for years. The bar closed in 2009.

“It was on the backside of the building and we knocked it down pretty quickly,” said Rancho Adobe fire Capt. Rene Torres. “There was some smoldering debris.”

Electricity and fire had been turned off to the structure long ago, he said. It is suspected the fire began with homeless people setting a warming fire.

“That building will have to be torn down, even without the fire,” Torres said.

Robert “Red” Lehan bought the building - which had been a bar called Burt’s - in 1976 and operated his divey, but friendly bar, which survived until 2009 under different managers. Lehan died in 2004.

The bar was affectionately mentioned in Tom Waits’ 1999 song “Filipino Box Spring Hog.”

You can reach Staff Writer Lori A. Carter at 707-521-5470 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @loriacarter.