A fire at a beloved Suffolk pub destroys it and the barber shop next door, just days ahead of the Kings Park St. Patrick's Day Parade.

"It's catastrophic, the damage inside, the walls look like they're fine from the outside, but what's inside is...something you just don't want to see or ever have to experience," said Dawn Mangini, who tells News 12 that she's worked at the Main Street Pub for 24 years. "Everybody knows this place, it's iconic, whether you know it as Tony's or the Main Street Pub."

Kings Park Fire Department Chief Philip Carroll says firefighters leaving the fire house on Main Street for the night saw heavy smoke down the block.

"It's lucky and it helped us have a very quick response time," said Carroll. "We had that first engine on scene operating within three minutes of discovering the fire so definitely the quick response time helped to prevent what could have been a much worse fire."

Carroll says the fire broke out just before 11 p.m. Tuesday.

When crews got to the scene, Carroll says there was fire on the roof of the Main Street Pub.

"We fought a very difficult and dangerous fire in the cockloft area of that building," said Carroll.

The fire also spread to Euro Barber Shop next door.

"There is extensive fire, heat, smoke damage to Main Street Pub and there's smoke, water and some fire damage to Euro Barber Shop," said Carroll.

Carroll said an injured firefighter was treated at a hospital and released.

The fire forced the Main Street Pub to close just days before the community's annual St. Patrick's Day parade this Saturday, March, 1.

This year's parade grand marshal, Sue Benjes, says the pub is in the middle of the parade route.

"It's going to make an impact...Scott (with The Main Street Pub) was a very big supporter of the parade, he did a gold ad every year in our journal, he sold our raffle tickets, and he just was very community involved," said Benjes.

The Main Street Pub and Euro Barber Shop will be closed until further notice.

The St. Patrick's Day Parade is set to start at 12 p.m. in Kings Park.

The official cause of the fire is under investigation.

In a statement to News 12, Suffolk police said in part, "Detectives believe the cause of the fire to be non-criminal."