Park City Fire District Assistant Chief Sean Briley said crews got a call about a grease fire around 4:45 a.m. Thursday, March 5.
The fire started in the kitchen of Chimayo, the Southwestern restaurant in the 300 block of Main Street near Java Cow.
Standing outside the building surrounded by fire hoses and piles of white foam, Briley said the age of the Old Town building made fighting the fire a challenge.
“Luckily, the city required all these old buildings to retrofit sprinklers years ago, and so that probably kept it a little bit in check,” he said. “But once it gets into all the duct work, it starts heating up the wood, and this old wood probably has really low moisture content in it.”
Firefighters knocked down the flames in the kitchen, but while they were checking the rest of the building, they saw the fire had spread.
“We discovered there was more active fire in void spaces, and then we actually saw some smoke coming out of the eaves of the roof,” he said.
Void spaces are the areas hidden behind walls or ceilings.
Briley said these types of fires are difficult to track down and completely destroy, especially because they can run vertically through the kitchen hoods and spread through the rest of the building.
Firefighters must then use tools like chainsaws and “piercing nozzles” to attack flames in tight spaces.
At around 10 a.m., Briley was confident the fire was out.
“We’ll be here, in and out, for the remainder of the day, investigating,” he said. “We’ll have crews rotate through and just ensure that this is for sure out and Old Town is safe.”
Briley said no restaurant staff were injured.
The smell of smoke filled the air, and a few condo units near the restaurant had their smoke alarms go off, but firefighters confirmed the fire did not spread to any adjacent buildings.
The fire at Chimayo is the second at a Bill White property in recent years: Grappa, the Italian restaurant at the top of Main Street, reopened in May 2023 after a September 2022 grease fire.
Briley said Old Town buildings can be difficult to repair after fire damage, and he estimated that buildings similar to Chimayo have taken months to a year to recover.
As of late morning Thursday, Chimayo’s website said the restaurant will be closed until further notice.
