Fire closes student eatery for months
Popular student restaurant Foo San will be closed for two months after a fire ripped through its kitchen.
The Christchurch restaurant now has smoky drips down its walls, burnt remains of Chinese dim sum cooking equipment and food, and a strong smell of the inferno that destroyed its kitchen on Rountree St, Ilam, on Sunday afternoon. It is believed it was started by a power fault.
Co-owner Cheng Yew Toh had just shown insurance inspectors through when visited yesterday, so said he was unsure what the overall rebuild cost would be.
The restaurant would be closed for at least two months, but the repair was covered by insurance.
‘‘Inside kitchen damaged a lot, all burnt out.’’
Toh said it was sad for him and co-owner Sam Soh to see the 25-year-old business burned. It opened in 1992.
‘‘It’s bad luck.’’
He worried about his six staff members who would be out of work until the restaurant was up and running again.
It was a regular haunt of students from nearby University of Canterbury, and he had had good support from the community since the fire, he said.
Toh had closed up at 2.30pm on Sunday, after the lunch rush, to have a break before dinner preparation began. He was called by the neighbouring fish-and-chip shop at 3.30pm and told there was ‘‘a lot of smoke’’ coming from the premises.
‘‘I came and [the] fire car [was] already here.’’
Fire investigators told him the fire appeared to be have started because of a power fault.
A Fire and Emergency NZ spokesman said three fire crews were called to extinguish the fire at 3.40pm on Sunday.
When firefighters arrived, the blaze had engulfed the kitchen and smoke had damaged windows.
The fire investigator was unavailable to comment yesterday.