Newton Restaurant Fire Would've Been Bad In 5 Mins: Firefighter

NEWTON, MA — This morning as cooks were prepping for the day's meals a fire broke out in Buttonwood Restaurant's kitchen. One of the restaurant cooks called 911 around 10:20 a.m. and within a half an hour fighters put out the main body of the fire at the restaurant at 51 Lincoln St. in the Highlands.

"The guys did a real nice job of getting in and making sure it didn't extend to the other businesses down the line," said Capt. Eric Fricke a fire department spokesperson. "Another 5 or 10 minutes it would have been a real problem."

Fricke said none of the employees nor any of the firefighters were injured. Because it was a bit of a warm day and the fire was in a business area where a fire could have spread quickly the department had more hands on deck than usual for a single alarm, said Fricke.

It helped, too, that the restaurant is situated on the corner, so firefighters only had to make sure to prevent the fire from moving on one side of the restaurant.

Fire officials are investigating, but an early look shows the fire appears to have started near the stove's hood,w which can be a common problem area for restaurants.

Buttonwood restaurant just opened this year in the Highlands where 51 Lincoln once was, the restaurant wasn't open at the time the fire was called in (they open at 5 p.m.)

There's no estimate on damages, yet while investigators check out the situation.

"Anytime you're in a commercial kitchen there are a variety of ignition sources," said Fricke noting it could take a while to figure out just what happened.

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