Garages adjacent to the Thunderguards Motorcycle Club on Northeast Boulevard in Wilmington are the scene of activity Wednesday afternoon. / WILLIAM BRETZGER/THE NEWS JOURNAL
A routine fire safety inspection Tuesday led to the discovery of an illegal bar with gambling machines inside some leased garages behind the Thunderguards Motorcycle Club in Wilmington’s northeast section, city officials said.
The garages where the bar was located had not been inspected in 10 years, Wilmington Fire Chief Anthony Goode said.
“They completely built another room inside three of the six garages, like a bar with liquor stored inside, tables and chairs, pool tables, flat screen TV, and a bathroom,” Goode said. The biker club was not licensed to sell liquor.
The other three garages were used to store tools and motorcycles, authorities said.
Goode said fire officials notified city police and inspectors with the License and Inspections Department and they seized the alcohol and gambling machines.
The city Fire Marshal’s Office conducts inspections of commercial businesses every other year. Goode said during previous inspections the garages were not accessible.
“When marshal deputies can not make access, it’s put on the back burner for two years,” he said.
“When they arrived there Tuesday, there were people closing up the garage door and (inspectors) went to the owner because the garage doors had just been opened,” Goode said.
The property is owned by RM Auto Service, which leases the garages to the Thunderguards, he said.
Both the Fire Marshal’s Office and License and Inspections on Tuesday cited the clubhouse for numerous code violations.
The bar room had one way in and one way out, leaving the bar and its patrons without fire protection. Inspectors also found other violations, such as the exit blocked, emergency lighting not working, sprinkler system issues, and outdated fire extinguishers.
At the direction of a DATE officer at the scene, Wilmington police confiscated the two gambling machines and all of the alcohol on the premises, said Kimberly Holland Chandler, spokeswoman for the state Department of Homeland Security.
“There was enough alcohol to fill a van,” Goode said.
Charges will be filed against the building’s owner and those using the targeted buildings, said a spokeswoman for the city.
Over the years, the area near the clubhouse, located in the 2800 block of Northeast Blvd., has been the site of several shootings and murders.
Early Saturday, for instance, two men were hospitalized following a double shooting outside the club that’s still under investigation.
A 30-year-old Wilmington man was slain outside the club in early November and a woman wounded. A few days later, local and federal authorities raided the motorcycle club and arrested eight people in an alleged drug ring.
A triple shooting that left one man dead in 2009 prompted city officials to temporarily shut down the biker club, started in 1965.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20130328/NEWS01/303280069/Inspectors-cite-biker-club-over-illegal-bar?nclick_check=1
