A small mulch fire outside the Pershing Drive Burger King spread to the building Wednesday afternoon — pouring heavy smoke into the restaurant and forcing an evacuation.
The fire was reported at about 2:30 p.m., when workers and customers started seeing smoke in the back portion of the restaurant, near an indoor playground.
No one was injured, and volunteer firefighters quickly put out the fire.
Assistant fire chief Michael Eheman said the fire marshal is still investigating, but it appears the fire started outside in mulch, and spread to the building. The fire was inside a restaurant wall, but no flames were visible inside the building Eheman said.
“I was leaving, going into the lavatory when I saw a whole bunch of smoke,” said employee Dayona Hamilton. “You couldn’t even walk in the door.”
Hamilton said there were four workers and four customers in the building at the time.
One of the customers — Gerardo Guzman — had just bought a jalapeno burger for lunch when he saw the smoke. He noticed a woman with her two young kids in the restaurant’s indoor playground.
“I told her to get out of here,” Guzman said. “I led them out the other door (on the other side of the building). You couldn’t even see outside, there was so much smoke in there.”
Store manager Tim Esposito said the restaurant will be closed for the rest of the day, and possibly longer, because of smoke damage. He said the health department had been called.
Eheman said an electrician will have to inspect the building before it can be reopened because the firefighters poured water behind the walls.
