OLEAN, N.Y. — With the January fire that tore through AJ’s Bar now declared an electrical accident, Olean fire officials say there were few, if any, signs the sturdy structure would spark as it did.

Meanwhile, the owners, Barb and Gary Lickfeld, await insurance information that’ll dictate the future of their family-legacy establishment at 2330 W. State St.

Olean Fire Capt. Mike Connelly said overheated wiring in an outlet behind the bar caused the fire, which halted decades of near-continuous operation at AJ’s. City firefighters had responded shortly after 6 a.m. on an icy Jan. 11 to douse the building as it burned within.

No one was hurt.

Fire officials plan for a variety of emergency scenarios across the city. However, there were no apparent pressing issues with AJ’s, Connelly said.

“A lot of times, it’s an overloaded circuit or something went wrong with the circuit or there was a short in a piece of equipment they plugged in,” the captain added. “You can’t really spot that. … A lot of that is hidden.”

But building inspections do help greatly, said Fire Chief Robert Bell.

“When we pre-plan, we estimate the average if one-third of the building is on fire, and we try to get our fire flows so we know what resources to call in on a fire like that,” Bell said. “When we go out and inspect, if there are places there that we feel are a high hazard, yes, we turn them over to Code Enforcement, and they’ll issue orders of remedy and citations to get those problems

corrected.”

Lacking oxygen, openly burning flames within AJ’s that morning likely were short-lived, but the walls, ceiling and inward portions of the roof smoldered for some time, Connelly said. There was no structural damage.

“All the windows held, so it didn’t really get enough air to free burn,” he explained. “It was burning itself out, and that’s basically what happened when somebody saw the smoke coming out of the building.”

The Lickfelds, who took over AJ’s in January 1978, sat in their home next door on North 24th Street on Thursday afternoon, watching golf and periodically glancing out a side window to witness the small crew from Hillside Landscaping & General Construction removing materials that were damaged in the early morning blaze.

“I just couldn’t imagine if it was somebody’s home,” Barb Lickfeld said, to which her husband added, “But it was like home.”

“When we’re out, that’s the first thing some people ask, ‘What are you going to do?’” Barb Lickfeld continued. “I wish we could  tell them more.”

They’ve filed away their Liquor Board license. They’re awaiting a finalized estimate of the insurance return to decide what to do next.

The fire claimed hundreds of items lining the walls — historical newspapers, treasured pictures and sports memorabilia. Some longtime patrons, still hoping the watering hole will reopen, have expressed they would assist with reconstruction or donate items from their own homes to replenish the ambiance.

“What’s it worth? It’s worth $100 million to me,” Gary Lickfeld said inside the bar the day it burned, tears in his eyes. “How do you put a price on memories?”

The fire chief recalled some of those memories.

“I’ve got to say, some of that stuff on the walls was probably priceless,” Bell said. “I think even my picture was on the wall somewhere there, back in the years when I used to play softball against them. The local memorabilia can’t be replaced. That’s a tough loss.”

The establishment opened in the mid-1940s under Barb Lickfeld’s grandmother Anne Stritof Ross and her husband, Johnny. Anne’s Restaurant operated until her death in 1966. Barb Lickfeld’s parents then opened AJ’s there — named in honor of Anne and Johnny — in 1975. The Lickfelds, then newly married, took over the bar in 1978.

In recent years, the Lickfelds had been working toward retirement, with some discussion of transitioning the establishment to their daughter, Garen LeRoy. Navigating steadily increasing distributor prices — a pinch felt by bar owners everywhere — has been anything but easy, Gary Lickfeld said.

“This isn’t Silicon Valley,” added Barb Lickfeld, who manages AJ’s finances. “Some of these people can’t afford to have their beer prices going up a quarter a year.”