Habersham Hills Cinemas in Mt. Airy has reopened after a late-night fire Friday forced the evacuation of 50 people inside the theater.
As of 4:20 p.m. on Saturday, May 10, manager Michael James said the theater is open with an “abbreviated schedule until 6:00,” then “regular times till 10:00 as usual.”
The fire broke out around the building’s exterior sign. They were all safely evacuated, and no injuries were reported.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation with the Fire Marshal’s Office, according to Habersham County Fire Chief Jeff Adams.
Habersham County officials said the smoke billowed from the neon lights around the marquee, where the fire could have potentially started.
It was ‘a little scary’
On Friday, May 9, moviegoers were still inside the theaters and employees were preparing to close up for the night when someone noticed smoke coming from the marquee at the building’s entrance.
Clarkesville, Cornelia, and Habersham County firefighters responded to the scene shortly after 10:30 p.m. on May 9 after a 911 caller reported the fire.
Carter Crane of Habersham was watching the Minecraft movie at the theater when the fire broke out.
“I started smelling smoke, and they came and got us and said, ‘You need to evacuate,'” Crane told Now Habersham. “It was kind of shocking until I came outside and saw the flames.” He described the situation as “a little scary.”
Habersham Central students Shelby Rinefierd and Abigail Mize agreed with that description. In fact, for them, the evening came with an extra dose of ‘scary.’
“We were watching this really scary movie, and it was at the scary part, and then the lights came on, and they asked us to evacuate,” said Rinefierd.
The two friends were ushered into the parking lot with dozens of other moviegoers and employees.
“We just saw blue lights when we walked out, so we didn’t really know what was happening,” said Rinefierd.
Added Mize, “We thought maybe there was a threat at the movie theater, and we just needed to evacuate, and we saw the smoke and the firetrucks, and we realized it was a fire.”
Firefighters did ‘a really great job’
Clarkesville and Cornelia firefighters deployed ladder trucks as firefighters attacked the flames from the outside. They made their way to the marquee landing and battled the fire from there.
Observing the emergency response from the parking lot, Crane said the firefighters did “a really great job” getting the fire under control.
At 12:19 a.m., fire officials reported the fire was fully extinguished. They remained on the scene for more than an hour after that, checking for hotspots.
Plans to reopen
Georgia Theater Company (GTC) owns Habersham Hills Cinemas 8. District Manager Kelsey Fox told Now Habersham the fire did not damage anything inside the theater.
According to Fox, fire officials said they can reopen the theater after an electrical inspection. She hopes to have that done in time to reopen on Saturday, May 10.
Several moviegoers indicated they would return to see how their movie ends. As for how this real-life drama ended, Mize said, “I’m glad everyone is safe and it’s not that bad. It’s still a bad outcome, but it could have been worse.”
