Melbourne Greek restaurant damaged by fire
A large fire has caused up to $300,000 of damage to a South Melbourne Greek restaurant, Spitiko.
The apartment above was also damaged.
Neighbours called triple zero just before 3pm on Wednesday afternoon when they saw flames billowing from the roof of the two storey restaurant.
The Metropolitan Fire Brigade believes the fire started in the lower levels of the building and then spread through a flue into the top storey and ceiling space.
Fortunately, there were no injuries as the fire happened when no customers were inside.
A Spitiko employee was inside the restaurant at the time of the fire. He escaped uninjured.
"The fire actually spread through a cooking area flue into the second storey ceiling space, so there's a fair bit of damage up there," MFB Commander Phil Rogan told Channel Nine.
Commander Rogan believes it started when the man was getting the restaurant kitchen ready for business that night.
He said the fire was an accident.
"The person had started up all the ovens, which is a regular process to heat them up for the evening, and then he heard an unusual noise and fire went up through the flue," Commander Rogan told 3AW.
Firefighters stopped the blaze from spreading to nearby businesses at 4.15pm.
By 5.30pm, the MFB declared the area "safe".
Residents were then allowed to return to the surrounding buildings.
But that was not before the flames spread through to the upstairs apartment, causing up to $300,000 of damage.
The fire seems to have had some impact on the locals.
One man, identified only as Jeff, told 3AW his two-year-old girl had seen flames pouring out from the roof of the restaurant.
"Flames were coming out of the chimney straight away, it took over pretty quick," he said.
"My daughter, a two-year-old, actually saw it first before anyone started yelling out onto the street."
by Leon Gettler, May 11th 2017
