White Rock apartment fire damages Greek restaurant
WHITE ROCK — After her husband died, Georgia Theodosakis would visit Cosmos Greek Restaurant in White Rock knowing she would always find the comfort of dear friends.
For years, she had loved getting a table at the cosy spot on Marine Drive, which overlooks train tracks and Semiahmoo Bay. She began to love the restaurant’s owner Demetre, too. They married six years ago.
When flames ripped through an apartment above Cosmos about 11 p.m. Wednesday and sent dozens of residents onto the sidewalk, the couple watched for hours in agony as firefighters tamed the blaze in a bid to save the landmark restaurant.
“We’re just devastated,” Theodosakis said Thursday morning, after looking through the restaurant’s soot-covered windows to see its bar collapsed, parts of the ceiling destroyed and plates shattered across the tile floor.
Cosmos opened in the early 1970s and Demetre Theodosakis became co-owner and chef in 1978.
Georgia began working there in 2013 and, with her husband, split some of the workload with their partners Christina and George Zambus.
Wednesday night, kitchen staff were clocking off and servers had just left when the fire alarm started ringing.
Demetre went to find the source of black smoke outside when they heard the windows start to crackle from heat. Georgia wanted to empty the safe and grab business records but Demetre pulled her away, and they fled out back.
No one was seriously injured and the cause of the fire is being investigated.
Several suites and commercial units sustained damage from fire, smoke and water, the City of White Rock said in a statement.