BLOOMINGTON - In Thailand, owls are thought to signify bad luck.

Paul Jisook, owner of Bangkok Thai Restaurant, noted this superstition Sunday when discussing the seemingly ominous owl who showed up early Saturday morning outside of the restaurant and the adjacent bar, Canteen, at 105 W. Front St., shortly after a fire left apartments above the nightspot damaged and left Canteen with a hole in the ceiling.

Karen Murukas, of Bloomington, owner of Canteen, carries a picture of the furry omen in her cell phone as a reminder of the night water damaged the bar that she had just finished renovating less than three weeks prior.

Murukas and manager, Joe Scienski were in the bar at 2 a.m. Saturday performing closing duties when they saw fire trucks pull up and they were ordered to evacuate due to a fire on the third floor of the building, which is managed by Redbird Property Management. The manager of Rosie's, which is adjacent to Canteen, allowed Murukas and Scienski to take refuge in that tavern from the bitter cold. The near-zero-degree temperatures caused ice to form on Front Street in front of Canteen while firefighters used water to extinguish the fire.

The owl then appeared outside of Rosie's. Murukas said he was "hanging out," in the area for a long time.

Bloomington Fire Department authorities punctured the first-floor ceiling of Canteen in order to drain water from the above floor. Murukas was allowed to return to Canteen at about 4:30 a.m., when firefighters finished removing most of the excess water from the floor. She called her father who helped her clean up the remaining water, and the bar opened for business Saturday.

Murukas made renovations to Canteen's basement in December, which included laying cement over the previous dirt floor and installing a drain which she says helped drain the excess water Saturday morning.

"I consider us lucky," she said Sunday as she looked about her new basement. "It could have been a lot worse."

The bar was closed Sunday because the hole in the first-floor ceiling got worse, but will open today.

The cause of the fire, which began in the stairwell near third floor apartment, remains under investigation.

Jisook, who owns two apartments above his restaurant, said that a door and some windows of his apartments were damaged as a result of the fire and the firefighting efforts.

At least one residential unit above Canteen sustained extensive fire and smoke damage. There are no known injuries from the fire.

Jisook said that one of the residential units above Canteen was used by elderly men as a location for poker games.

Another fire

Carlock fire officials extinguished a chimney fire near Carlock on US 150 Saturday morning. Ellsworth's volunteer fire department also fought a fire in Arrowsmith later that day at 108 E. Hirst Street.