(Arnolds Park)– An early morning fire has caused minor damage at a Lakes Area restaurant. Arnolds Park-Okoboji Fire Chief Chris Yungbluth tells KUOO news they were called to the Waterfront Restaurant at Bridges Bay in Arnolds Park around 4:30 this (Thurs.) morning…
“It was for a fire alarm that sounded and when police officers got there they indicated that they could smell smoke. We were able to make entry into the Waterfront because they have a Knox Box which contains keys for the building just on the outside there that the Fire Department has a key for, and when we got in there we found a small fire still kind of burning, smoldering, in the kitchen area of the restaurant. We got it extinguished pretty quick with a fire extinguisher. We were able to evacuate the smoke out of the building and they have pretty minimal damage from it.”
Yungbluth says the fire was the result of a rag in a hamper that spontaneously combusted. He says things could have been quite a bit worse had the fire burned much longer…
“Luckily it didn’t get very big. The container that had the rags in it was away from the wall and the fire must not have gotten real big because there was some cardboard right above it that would have started but luckily there was also a sprinkler head right there so I think it would have been controlled but there would have been a lot more water damage on things if it had gotten any further than what it did.”
Firefighters were on the scene about an hour…
“It took us a little bit, it’s a pretty big building, had quite a bit of haze, some light smoke throughout the whole thing. We wanted to make sure to try to get as much of that cleared before we departed as we could, and so we were able to get that done in about an hour this morning.”
No injuries were reported.
Yungbluth says eight firefighters responded to the scene and that they were assisted by the Dickinson County Communications Center and the Arnolds Park and Okoboji Police Departments.
The business still plans to re-open Friday.
