Will This Boise Icon Be Torn Down After Fire?

"But I just ran past it a few hours ago" was my immediate thought when I saw Boise Fire Department's tweets last night. 

While I was cooking dinner last night, things came to a sudden halt when I looked in the refrigerator and realized that my fiance (who for most of the day was too sick to get out of bed) ate the onions I needed to make dinner.  So what did he do? Marched his happy butt across the street to buy more. While he was doing that, I jumped on Twitter and saw that Boise Fire Department was asking the public to stay away from the part of Julia Davis Park that houses the Gene Harris Bandshell.

A fire broke out in the structure around 8 p.m. and grew large enough for one truck and three engines to respond to the scene.  According to IdahoNews.com, the fire traveled up an exterior wall into the bandshell's hard to access attic.  The cause of the fire is unknown.

Boise Fire's initial assessment of the damage was that the bandshell was extremely unstable and would likely be a total loss.  In a follow up tweet, they said a second look at the structure looked more promising.  It is their hope (and the hope of the rest of the community, I'm sure) that with a little TLC, the bandshell can be repaired and saved.

It's been an iconic part of Julia Davis Park's history since the 1920s.