The Crystal City Fire Department quickly put out a fire this morning (Jan. 29) at Main Street Cafe, 902 Truman Blvd., but the diner will be closed for two days while the minor damage is repaired, owner Jay Akcay said.
Crystal City Fire got a call at 5:23 a.m. about the cafe fire, Chief Tony Bova said.
“We were there a total 30 or 45 minutes, less than an hour,” he said. “It was extinguished real quick.”
Bova said there were two or three employees inside the cafe when the fire started.
“They got out safely,” he said.
Bova said the fire started after an employee turned on a deep fryer in the corner of the restaurant.
“A gentleman turned it on, went to do something else and it caught fire,” Bova said.
While the fire damage was minimal and confined to the kitchen, regulations call for inspections before the restaurant can reopen, he said.
“There was no structural damage whatsoever,” Bova said. “They’ll need to get inspections from the (Jefferson County) Health Department and the (Crystal City) building commissioner before they can reopen.”
Bova said it was difficult battling the blaze in frigid temperatures, but no firefighters were hurt.
Akcay said the damage was confined to a hood exhaust system, which he hopes to soon have repaired.
“We cannot operate without the hood system,” he said.
When Main Street Cafe had different ownership and was located at 117 Main St. in Festus, it was damaged by a fire in October 2007 that started at another business housed in the same building. The cafe closed after that fire and reopened about a year later at its current site.