Lawrence crews battle fire at downtown restaurant
photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World
Firefighters work the scene of a fire early Thursday morning at Cielito Restaurant on New Hampshire Street. Crews from Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical have been fighting a significant fire in the 800 block of New Hampshire Street late Wednesday night and well into Thursday morning. Police and firefighters arrived shortly after 11:40 p.m.
Wednesday and found heavy smoke and fire at the back of 815 New Hampshire St., which is the site of Cielito Lindo Restaurant. A firefighter at the scene around 2:15 a.m. Thursday confirmed that no one had been injured and said crews were in a defensive position trying to keep the fire out of the neighboring building to the north, which is a historic stone building.
"It's still up in the attic," a first responder at the scene said, indicating significant fire still burning inside the restaurant. "We'll be here all night." Emergency radio traffic earlier indicated that arriving firefighters found heavy fire just inside the rear door of the building and into the kitchen area on the first floor.
photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World
Firefighters work the scene of a fire early Thursday morning at Cielito Restaurant on New Hampshire Street. This view is the south side of the restaurant.
Crews knocked down the kitchen fire in about 10 minutes. Smoke from the fire made its way into the building next door at 805 New Hampshire St., triggering a fire alarm. Fire crews searched the building and did not find any flames.
As of 1:50 a.m., firefighters have been evacuated from the original fire building after flames broke through the roof. Firefighters are now battling the flames from aerial ladders and part of the building's roof has collapsed. No one was reported to have been inside the building at the time of the fire and no injuries have been reported.
The Overland Park Fire Department has sent two fire trucks to help fill empty stations in Lawrence as crews continue to battle the fire downtown.
This is a developing story.
Check back with this page for updates as more details become available.