SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake City Fire Department is battling a 3-alarm fire at the old Golden Dragon restaurant near 1500 South Main Street early Tuesday, with the first flames being seen just after 7:15 a.m.
The building now houses the La Rana Mexican Snack Factory, according to the Ballpark Community Council.
“Three alarms on this, which gives us about 14 heavy apparatus on scene," said Capt. Brandt Hancuff. "We have approximately 60 Firefighter personnel here fighting this fire right now, we also have assistance from our police department.”
When crews arrived, they immediately called for a second alarm to be pulled. After initially attacking the fire, firefighters were forced to back off and take a defensive posture against the flames, at which point the blaze grew to a three-alarm fire.
Drone video shows size of fire at old restaurant site:
"[Firefighters] went offensive and conducted a fire attack in the interior of the building, where they encountered heavy flames and smoke in the back of the building where they also had some flashover in the back, and as a result of that, they had to pull out of the building so that they could protect themselves and we transitioned to a defensive fire since then," said Hancuff.
Video below shows the size of the fire when crews arrived on scene (Austin Begay):
Some of the fire personnel on the scene were there to keep the flames from spreading to nearby buildings. All of the factory employees were able to get out of the structure without injury.
A local coffee shop owner nearby was concerned as soon as she saw the smoke.
“As I got off the freeway on 13th, I just saw that there was like so much smoke all around and again in the direction of my business, so I came in our street was closed,” said Veronica Bojorquez, who owns Luna Coffee and Crystals.
Bojorquez now worries about the business owners.
“It was like flames going up, so it was a little scary and knowing the business and it’s just so sad, so sad that they’re a small Hispanic business and now they’ve lost everything,” she said.
Investigators are still attempting to learn how the fire started.
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