Fire chars new Vineland restaurant
Flames licked one side of a Vineland restaurant Wednesday, just days before it was scheduled to welcome its first customers.
Ahmad Baghdadi, owner of The Local Eat+Drink, was inside the restaurant when the fire started.
He said the alarms went off and he looked up and saw flames outside before running out of the building.
Baghdadi said he was the only one inside the restaurant at the time of the fire, but saw a tenant from the upstairs apartments exit the building as he did.
Lincoln Fire Rescue and Emergency Services Department was called to the corner of Victoria Avenue and King Street at about 1 p.m.
Fire chief Greg Hudsonafter said the fire broke out on the south side of the building. It was evacuated by the time the fire department had arrived.
Ashley Gibson, Baghdadi’s wife, left the restaurant just before the fire started. She said she received a call from her husband at 1:07 p.m. saying there was a fire.
Gibson speculated the fire started outside the restaurant — it was to open next week — due to the amount of charring on the south wall of the building.
Hudson said his team was still working to determine whether the fire started inside or outside. He said the damage to the south side of the building was significant. A dmage estimate was not immediately available.
Whether or not Baghadid and Gibson can open The Local by next week is yet to be determined.
“We want to, right, we’ve been waiting for months,” Gibson said. “We’ll see what the damage is like first.”