Fire at ‘Flaming Grill’ Restaurant in Brick Traced to Hibachi Unit

Flaming Grill, Brick, NJ. (Credit: Google Maps)

For the second time in a number of weeks, firefighters were called to the Flaming Grill buffet restaurant in Brick’s Kennedy Mall shopping center after a fire broke out.

Firefighters were alerted to the blaze by an alarm notification that went out just after 7:30 a.m., said Kevin Batzel, the director of the township’s Bureau of Fire Prevention. When firefighters arrived, they found a hibachi-style grill on fire in the rear area of the dining room, Batzel said.

Flames were being suppressed mainly by a self-contained sprinkler unit over the grill itself, though firefighters had to disable a gas line that was feeding the fire. The fire damage was kept to a minimum, though the Ocean County Health Department was called to examine the smoke damage caused by the incident.

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“There was a lot of smoke damage through the restaurant,” Batzel said, estimating the restaurant will be closed anywhere from one or two days, to a week.

The exact cause of the fire is still under investigation, though Batzel said it has been determined that a portion of the hibachi grill had been left on overnight.

“We’re still determining whether or not that was the exact cause of the fire,” Batzel said.

All of the township’s fire companies responded to the fire, plus township police and EMS units. No one was injured, though a van in the shopping center’s parking lot did cause minor damage to a piece of fire apparatus when it hit it by accident, Batzel said.