Two of the Tri-Cities’ Firehouse Subs restaurants have closed – possibly temporarily – while the current franchise owner works to transfer to a new franchisee. Meanwhile, other locations remain open.

With the exception of the Firehouse Subs in Pasco, every local Firehouse location is located inside a convenience store once owned by the Eerkes family’s Sun Pacific Energy company, under the brand Sun Market.

Late last year, the Eerkes family sold several of its assets — retail, dealer wholesale and “rolling stock,” or transportation — to Idaho’s PacWest Energy, which quickly rebranded from Sun Market to Jacksons. Following the sale, Eerkes continued running all Firehouse shops, including the ones in the Jacksons stores.

“For the last seven months, we have been operating these restaurants and actively searching for a new franchisee to assume our Firehouse franchise,” Craig Eerkes said.

In mid-July, some customers reported being told by Firehouse employees that all local locations would be closed by the end of the month. By early August, the restaurants in Burbank and West Richland had closed and the phone numbers were disconnected. Employees who answered the phone at other locations said there was a possibility the closed locations were only temporary.

Eerkes didn’t confirm the future of Burbank and West Richland’s Firehouse Subs, but said, “it appears a new franchisee has agreed to lease terms with Jacksons and will be assuming operations very soon.”

The Richland (Horn Rapids), Kennewick (Badger Canyon) and Pasco (Broadmoor Boulevard) Firehouse Subs are all currently open as usual. The corporate office of Firehouse Subs did not respond to requests for comment.

Neither Sun Pacific nor Jacksons wanted to elaborate on the situation. Through a public relations firm, Jacksons said, “Jacksons Food Stores does not own or operate any Firehouse Subs locations and does not have any say in the business decisions made by the owner of the franchise. There have not been any steps taken to terminate any lease agreements. Jacksons would welcome Firehouse Subs to remain open in their current locations, but the decision is the sole responsibility of the franchise owner.”

The Eerkes family brought Firehouse Subs to the local market after waiting out a five-year non-compete clause following its sale of 27 Circle K convenience stores in 2012, including many with a Subway franchise.

Once this non-compete had run its course, the family reentered the retail market and built new gas stations and convenience stores that included the Firehouse Subs franchises until it sold all of those assets late last year, saying the family had no plans to get back into the fuel or convenience store business.