THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 2, 1995 TAG: 9512020560
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Short : 32 lines
A fire early Friday swept the Dairy Queen restaurant on North Main Street.
No one was injured, but the three-alarm fire tied up traffic along the corridor between Constance Road and the Suffolk Plaza Shopping Center for much of the day.
Firefighters remained on the scene until mid-afternoon.
A passerby reported the fire about 4:52 a.m. The restaurant - until recently open around the clock - had closed at 3 a.m., and the last employee reportedly left about 4 a.m., said Fire Department spokesman Jeff Messinger.
The loss of the building and its contents was estimated at $575,000.
Owner Mitch Sandlin said he plans to rebuild, either at the site or another location. Until then, he said, the restaurant's nearly 30 employees will be rotated, as much as possible, into shifts at Dairy Queens in Windsor, Franklin and Courtland.
Soon after firefighters arrived, the roof caved in, and the air conditioner fell into the restaurant, forcing the firefighters to battle the blaze from outside. The fire started in the kitchen area, in the back of the restaurant. Fire Marshal H.R. Parker said the probable cause was grease build-up on the hood fan system over the grill. by CNB