Flames and smoke were flaring out of the Indochine Lounge in downtown Santa Barbara when city firefighters pulled up just before 7 p.m. on Tuesday evening, jetting streams of water into the nightclub. The fire erupted in the front part of the narrow brick-walled building, said City Fire Inspector Zach Wuchner, though the cause remains unknown.
Patrons say the front part of the club held a deejay platform, with a bar, dance floor, and lounge deeper in the building. The club is closed on Tuesdays.
Wuchner said considerable smoke damage occurred throughout Indochine and to its neighbors. One is a smoke shop and the other a restaurant. Video posted at X showed patrons running out of Craft Ramen as the fire blazed out the window next door.
The window likely failed from the fire’s heat, said Wuchner, and the roof was still intact. The club had changed owners in August, but reopened fairly quickly with deejay shows. The owners were prepping to reopen again, Wuchner said, but Indochine’s building at 434 State Street has been red-tagged as uninhabitable.
“The building inspector has to survey the building for structural integrity” before it can reopen, Wuchner said. “And the health department gets involved before they can reopen. There’s quite a bit of smoke damage,” he said. “Unfortunately, they’ll have to go through the full process.” Wuchner thought his investigation report to determine the cause of the fire and damage would be finished in a week or two.
