A fire Thursday night (Dec. 1) slightly damaged the roof at Thai Rama restaurant, 907 N. Truman Blvd., Crystal City Fire Chief Tony Bova reports.
The restaurant is expected to reopen this evening (Dec. 2), according to a member of the family that owns the business.
“We got a call around 8 p.m. or so,” Crystal City Fire Chief Tony Bova said. “The fire was only in the roof and caused minimal damage in the roof area. We had it out in 15 to 20 minutes. The fire was right above the foyer area where you go in.”
Crystal City Fire Capt. Patrick Friedmeyer said firefighters needed to cut a 5-by-2-foot hole in the roof to battle the fire.
Bova said the cause of the fire is unknown and will not be investigated because the amount of damage was so small, so he could only speculate how it started.
“They were getting a new roof put on,” the chief said. “They could have cut a wire. But, it will not be investigated.”
Firefighters were on scene for about an hour, he said.
Friedmeyer said only restaurant employees, no customers, were at the restaurant when firefighters arrived.
Bova said his department contacted the Jefferson County Health Department, which is standard procedure when there’s a fire at a business that sells food, and the Health Department gave its approval for the restaurant to reopen today. Friedmeyer said the city completed other inspections of the property this morning.
Caleb Pitman, son of Thai Rama owners Carl and Nina Pitman, said his family got approval from city inspectors to reopen after repair work is finished today.
“We’re waiting for Ameren to come out and turn our power back on,” Caleb Pitman said. “We should be open for dinner tonight.”
He said he could not give an exact time as to when the restaurant will reopen.
Caleb Pitman said his family leases the space for the restaurant in the strip mall.
The Festus and Herculaneum fire departments and the Dunklin, Hematite and Jefferson R-7 fire protection districts helped with the call.