Fuel steams ahead after small fire

A rogue ember caused the fuel beneath Fuel ‘amp; Fuddle restaurant and bar’s pizza oven to… A rogue ember caused the fuel beneath Fuel ‘amp; Fuddle restaurant and bar’s pizza oven to catch fire last Tuesday. Thanks to the construction of the oven and its flame-retardant materials, the fire was contained, and the restaurant reopened the next day.

Vic Bovalino, director of operations for the restaurant, was not present for the fire but spoke with officials from the health and fire departments immediately following the incident.

‘Our pizza ovens run about 700 degrees, and a small ember was trapped in an oven brush – which is an anomaly, it never happens,’ said Bovalino. ‘It fell underneath a storage box where we keep the wood for the fire.’

Because of its steel outer shell and blown ceramic interior, Bovalino said there’s no danger of a fire spreading from an oven to the restaurant.

‘That whole area [around the oven] is a giant firebox, so it’s set up to contain and handle fire,’ he said.

Before the restaurant could resume business, it was required to gain clearance from the Allegheny County Health Department.

‘It was a small structural fire in the wall behind the oven. It did not affect any of the food service or the integrity of the establishment,’ said Dave Zazac, the spokesman for the health department.

‘All of the exposed food was thrown out, and they opened for business the next day.’

The night of the fire, Roy McDonald, chief of Fire Battalion BC2, said he thought the blaze was the result of a worn brick in the pizza oven.

Bovalino disagreed.

‘I believe the fire chief alluded to some structural damage in the oven, and that’s just impossible,’ said Bovalino. ‘There was no damage at all.’

When asked to comment, the fire department said only that the fire was accidental.

In addition to the unanticipated post-fire inspection last Wednesday morning, Fuel ‘amp; Fuddle was also due for a routine code inspection, which the health department conducted all at once.

‘They came out and checked that all the product in use [the day of the fire] was replaced, that there was no structural damage, that the duct work was okay and that the emergency lighting was operational,’ said Bovalino.

The restaurant passed each inspection and lost only a few hours of business the night of the incident. Still, had the flames been more severe and closed the restaurant for longer, Bovalino said a loss of revenue would be secondary to safety.

‘In the 20-plus years I’ve been doing this, in several restaurants, there are always situations that come up, and the important thing is to err on the side of safety,’ he said.

Upon discovering the flames, Bovalino said his staff evacuated the restaurant by moving table to table, alerting the patrons of the issue and asking them to evacuate.

On the whole, Bovalino said he felt there was no reason to be concerned about the future safety of the restaurant, nor any reason to anticipate further problems.

‘Restaurants in general are infinitely safer than most commercial businesses and nearly every home out there,’ said Bovalino. ‘They’re equipped to deal with these situations because city codes mandate that they must be prepared for anything.’