Fire tears through Norfolk County restaurant

Crews spent Thursday afternoon battling a large restaurant fire south of Simcoe, Ont.

Police, firefighters and paramedics responded to Sakura Sushi Restaurant, off of Highway 24, just after 4 p.m.

Staff returned from a break following lunch service to begin prepping for dinner when they saw flames coming from the kitchen. After attempting to extinguish the fire on their own, they called for help.

“It appears that everybody has gotten out the restaurant and firefighters are doing a great job of preventing it from spreading to a nearby residence,” OPP Const. Ed Sanchuk said in a video posted to Twitter. “They’re working as hard as they can right now.”

Firefighters managed to contain the flames by 5 p.m., though the fire had already spread through much of the restaurant, leaving extensive damage.

Due to the restaurant's rural location, fire crews encountered some challenges in their response.

"Typical of a rural area fire, they are always going to be fairly advanced when we get to them," said Cory Armstrong-Smith, fire prevention officer with Norfolk County Fire. "Water supply is always something we have to deal with. We actually have five stations here delivering water via tanker and the operations have gone very well. It's just a stubborn fire in an older building they're a challenge to put out."

There were no injuies as a result of the fire and officials say they don't believe it is suspicious.

Highway 24 was closed between St.  John’s Road East at Lynn Valley Road, but reopened just before 9 p.m.