A fire broke out in one of the restrooms at a new Brick Township restaurant.
The Flaming Grille, a buffet-style restaurant in the Kennedy Mall shopping center, nearly lived up to its name Tuesday afternoon when a fire broke out about 4 p.m., officials said.
The Breton Woods and Pioneer Hose fire companies responded to the scene and found the fire had already been put out by the restaurant’s sprinkler system, said Kevin Batzel, director of the Brick Township Bureau of Fire Prevention.
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Batzel said investigators determined the fire was started when smoking materials had been disposed of in the bathroom trash can.
The activation of the sprinkler system helped avert a much larger fire, Batzel said. One sprinkler head activated during the incident.
“It’s an old building,” Batzel explained. “[The fire] would have traveled up pretty fast into that building.”
There were a small number of patrons in the restaurant at the time, Batzel said. All were evacuated. The bureau is following up today at the restaurant, which is back in operation.
“If it was not for the sprinkler system, that restaurant would be shut down,” said Batzel.
