CARENCRO, La. (KLFY)– An early morning fire at Pelican Park has caused all scheduled baseball games and tournaments to be canceled until further notice. Carencro Fire Chief David Mouton said the fire started in the storage of the concession stand.

“When we arrived on scene the first truck discovered heavy smoke and flames coming out of the first floor. It is a three-story building, so they had flames coming out of the first floor and smoke going into the second and third,” Mouton said.

It took firefighters 30 minutes to put out the fire. The concession stand suffered the most damage while the second and third floors of the complex suffered smoke damage. Frank Wittenberg with Carencro Parc said the first floor is closed until it is determined if it can be renovated or will have to be torn down and rebuilt.

“We’re waiting for a structural engineer to give us some details about what’s safe and what’s unsafe with the structure at this point,” Wittenberg said.

Wittenberg said concerns over canceled games and events is something he hopes to address once an engineer inspects the building. He said he can see how people are concerned about the economic impact of the park being temporarily closed.”

Certainly, the weeknight youth league that play here that’s all-local residents, so it has a little bit of economic impact getting food,” Wittenberg said. “Coming to the park, leaving the park. Certainly, our loss of revenue concession affects the economic impact and the city of Carencro.

“But events like Mercedi will not be affected.

“We do not anticipate any delays with Mercedi,” Wittenberg said. “We have two shows left for the spring session.”

Wittenberg said his main concern is making sure the building is safe for people to be inside of the complex. He said he’s beyond grateful to everyone involved in helping contain and put the fire out.

“I really appreciate the Carencro fire department and the help from the city of Lafayette and the city of Scott that came in and helped with getting it under control faster,” Wittenberg said. “That certainly helps, and please be patience with us, we’re trying the get the fields open as soon as we can, but we want to make sure it’s safe for everybody.

“As of Monday evening, all games and events will continue as scheduled as barricades have been placed around the damaged structure until an engineer can inspect the building.

Carencro Fire Department