Fire Closes Church’s Texas Chicken in Machesney Park

Fans of fried chicken in the Machesney Park area are going to have to make other dinner plans for a little while, because a fire has shut down the Church’s Texas Chicken on West Lane Road.

Church's Texas Chicken via Facebook

Fire at Church's Texas Chicken

It's been just over a year since Church's Texas Chicken opened its first restaurant in the Rockford area, and I still haven't been there to try it for myself.

Honestly, I don't travel to the 173 area of Machesney Park very often, and when I do, there's usually a line too long for me to wait in at Church's Texas Chicken. Sadly though, that won't be the case for the next handful of weeks.

On Monday, May 11, I saw a post in the Loves Park Neighborhood Watch Group on Facebook that said:

Possible Commercial Fire
1586 West Lane Rd
Church’s Chicken
2:12am Monday

Lost of smoke seen no flames

Police on scene, says heavy smoke in the building, but sees no flames but also hard to see in the building.
Fire on scene, reports smoke coming from the roof
MABAS - Calling out Box 10 to the Box level
Struck out the box except for change of quarters.

And today (May 12) there is a sign on the door that says this:

As I write this, no additional information has been released about what started the fire or what the extent of the damage is, but this isn't the first time a fire has broken out in the building that Church's Texas Chicken currently resides in.

Google Street View

Bad Fire Luck?

When news broke in the Loves Park Neighborhood Watch Group that a fire had broken out at Church's Texas Chicken, several people were quick to comment that this wasn't the first time a building was on fire at 1586 West Lane Road in Machesney Park.

They had a fire at that location years ago when it was KFC and Long John Silvers.
Oh No not again ! This building is sure having a lot of problems with their fryers or some kind of electricity wiring.
I wonder if that place had bad wiring with the electrical that's never been found & fixed. Weird it happens a 2nd time at the same building.
That building is legit cursed .

We may never know for sure why fires repeatedly break out in this specific Machesney Park location, but I have a bad feeling Church's Texas Chicken won't be reopening there...or at least not anytime soon. What do YOU think?