A fire broke out in the kitchen of the recently opened Flaming Pit restaurant on Arsenal Street, Thursday evening, but Watertown Firefighters were able to stop the fire before it damaged the building.
Employees were in the restaurant at 222 Arsenal Street when the fire started, shortly after 8 p.m. on Nov. 30.
“The fire started in the hood above the cooking area,” said Watertown Deputy Fire Chief Dan Tardif.
The flames spread through the restaurant’s duct work, and got up to the ducts on the roof, Tardif said.
“We were able to contain it to the duct,” Tardif said. “It didn’t get to the roof itself.”
The fire was put out before a second alarm had to be called. The business is in a commercial block next to the new Gables Apartments.
All the employees were able to get out without injury, Tardif said.
The restaurant will be closed for a few days while the repairs are done.
“(The owners) were going to meeting with the Board of Health to see what they had to do to get up and running again,” Tardif said.
Good save by WFD for stopping the fire from spreading, but I have to wonder if the narrowing, reduction in lanes on that section of Arsenal St. is problematic for them
with regards to response time and fire scene operations? At 8:00 PM, probably not that much, but if the call had came in at peak rush hours, that save might have turned out differently.
I asked about the narrowing and the Deputy Chief said it did not cause a problem fighting this fire. As for getting there, as you said, this was not rush hour.