Weekend fires damage restaurant, home

Mark Schlachtenhaufen
The Edmond Sun

EDMOND July 21, 2008 10:16 pm

— A restaurant manager said thanks to the rapid response by Edmond firefighters, he was open for business as usual on Sunday, hours after a fire forced patrons to evacuate.
Diners enjoying a meal Saturday evening at Sumo Japanese Steak House, 1801 S. Broadway, evacuated after a fire started in a nearby outbuilding.
Restaurant manager Leon He said minor damage occurred in the kitchen but there was no damage inside the rest of the restaurant. On Monday shortly past noon, several patrons were dining.
Over the weekend, state officials inspected the food and air and gave the restaurant the green light to reopen, He said.
At 6:50 p.m. on Saturday the Edmond Fire Department received a call about the fire. Someone passing by the restaurant saw the smoke and notified the staff, He said.
When firefighters arrived, they found the outbuilding fully involved, said Fire Department spokesman Maj. Kelly Lewis. The fire also was starting to burn on the restaurant’s roof.
After ensuring that all patrons had evacuated the restaurant, firefighters put out the fire on the roof of the main structure and the outbuilding.
The tar roof of the restaurant was ignited by direct flame contact from the outbuilding, according to the incident report. The fire spread to the exhaust vent for the grill and the fryers in the kitchen.
Lewis said the investigator was unable to determine the exact cause of the fire in the outbuilding, but did find discarded cigarette butts nearby. Bamboo and other material were stored between the two buildings, Lewis said.
The outbuilding and its contents, worth a total of $20,000, were listed as a total loss, according to the incident report. The fire caused a total of $11,000 in damage to the main structure.

Kitchen fire put out safely
In another weekend incident, Edmond firefighters responded Saturday morning to reports of a kitchen fire in a home at 2800 block of Pheasant Run.
The homeowner was cooking food on the stove when the pan she was cooking with caught fire, Lewis said. When she realized the pan was on fire she put it out with a fire extinguisher.
As she was taking the pan to the sink, something fell over on the stove burner and a second fire was started, which she also extinguished, Lewis said.
“It appeared the item that fell over and caught fire was a bag of potato chips and a bag of nuts,” Lewis said.
Damage to the kitchen involved some charring to the backsplash, hood vent and some superficial cabinet damage. According to the incident report, the fire caused $2,500 in damage.

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