Chris Poniros stood outside the burned-out remnant of the restaurant that’s been in his family for nearly three decades and summed up his feelings with one word.
“Devastation.”
The Sassafras Diner & Family Restaurant in Huntington Plaza was gutted by a blaze that began in its kitchen after closing time Thursday. Firefighters got the call at about 11 p.m. and had it under control in about 30 minutes. The cause of the fire has not been determined.
“It’s totaled,” Poniros said while standing near the back door of the diner Friday morning.
Yet Poniros vowed to re-open the popular eatery. He was just 8 years old when his father opened the restaurant in 1983.
“We plan to remodel and get back as soon as we can,” he said.
As Poniros stood in the parking lot, several regular customers stopped to offer sympathy, thoughts — and hugs.
“It’s temporary,” one man assured Poniros.
The damage to the diner touched a nerve in Shelton, as current and former residents used the Valley Indy Facebook page to show support for Poniros — and share memories of his family’s business.
“This was my first job … worked there for three years,” Tracy Platt posted on the Valley Indy’s wall. ​“The owners are such nice people. I’m glad everyone is okay! Such sad news,” she said.
“Sad day today,” Katherine Roland wrote. ​“I remember when Sassafras opened. Glad to hear the owner will rebuild.”
“How horrible! Sassafrass is one of my favorite places on Shelton — prayers for the family,” Peggy Demaine wrote.
“I am so sad to see this. I went there very Sunday after church with my family,” Jeanine Satnick wrote. ​“My grandmother and I would have lunch there since I was 10 years old. It was her favorite place.”
Click here and here for more reactions from Valley Facebook readers.
Poniros said nothing seemed out of the ordinary when the restaurant closed at 10 p.m. last night.
But after a friend had seen news of the blaze on the Internet and called him, he rushed to Shelton from his Stratford home.
“They actually had it put out by the time I got here,” Poniros said.
Fire Marshal James Tortora said at the scene that the fire started somewhere in the kitchen, perhaps near a stove.
“The exact cause of the fire we’re not sure of yet,” Tortora said.
Here is a photo gallery showing the diner’s condition Friday morning (article continues below the gallery):
A firefighter suffered a minor ankle injury while accessing the roof, Tortora said. See the video at the top of the story for an interview with Tortora.
Click here to see how Valley Indy Facebook readers reported on the fire as it was happening.
Firefighters cut holes in the roof for ventilation and then knocked down the blaze before it spread to other businesses.
“It gutted the whole restaurant. A lot of heat, lot of smoke,” Tortora said of the blaze. ​“The fire department did an excellent job keeping it confined just to the restaurant.”
The kitchen had a fire suppression system, Tortora said. “(It) did activate but it did not control the fire,” he said.
Huntington Plaza is a shopping center with about 16 stores in four separate buildings. The address is 13 Huntington Plaza.
Storefront business next to the diner include Huntington Chiropractic – which also sustained some damage as evidenced by a missing front door — and Gifts By The Green.
A fire within another store burned one of the buildings within Huntington Plaza to the ground sometime in the 1980s, according to a Shelton firefighter at the scene.
“This was a much different result than in the 80s,” he said.
Shelton firefighters — who were on the scene from about 11 p.m. until Friday morning — called for mutual aid from Derby and Trumbull.