Sturgis, South Dakota - The Full Throttle Saloon, which described itself as “The World's Largest Biker Bar”, was gutted by fire this week, hours after hosting the town's 75th annual motorcycle rally.
The bar, and its owner, Michael Ballard, are well known locally and beyond, after featuring in the reality series Full Throttle Saloon on the truTV channel from 2009 to 2014. Due in part to a lack of fire hydrants nearby, dozens of firefighters were powerless to extinguish the blaze before the venue burnt to the ground. No one was harmed in the fire, the cause of which has yet to be determined. The Full Throttle's mascot, a donkey named Emmett, also escaped unscathed.
At least 15 000 people typically attend the rally. The saloon, which opened in 1999, included music stages, a tattoo parlour, a wrestling ring, shops, rental cabins and parking spaces for thousands of bikes. Its centrepiece was the “Wall of Death”, a vertical motorcycle stunt ring.
The Independent