Popular Dartmouth diner loses thousands of dollars in food after strip mall fire

A weekend fire closed several Dartmouth, N.S., businesses.

Even though flames never reached his restaurant, Stephen Fatourous says the smell of smoke and the loss of power have forced him to throw out of thousands of dollars worth of food after a fire tore through part of a Dartmouth, N.S., plaza late Saturday night.

Fatourous, who owns the Pleasant Street Diner, said smoke from the blaze spread throughout the building, leaving a lingering smell of burnt plastic and metal inside his restaurant.

“I stood there for about 10 seconds,” he said. “The smoke and the smell were so strong.”

The diner sits on the opposite end of the strip mall from where the fire broke out, but Fatourous said the restaurant remains closed with no electricity. He said all food stored in freezers, including seafood, will have to be discarded, and restoration crews have told him the space could take two to three weeks to properly clean.

“All the product in the freezer has to be gotten rid of,” he said. “It’s thousands of dollars.”

Halifax Fire and Emergency officials said crews were called to the commercial plaza on Pleasant Street around 11:37 p.m. Saturday after receiving reports of heavy smoke and flames coming from an unoccupied businesses, including restaurants and a pharmacy.

Fire officials said crews arrived within minutes and upgraded the response to a second alarm due to the size of the building and concerns about the fire spreading. About a dozen fire apparatus and roughly 50 to 60 firefighters were deployed.

Officials said the fire was contained to the unoccupied unit and did not spread to neighbouring businesses. No injuries were reported.

Power to the plaza was shut off overnight as a precaution, forcing multiple businesses to close. The fire was declared out shortly before 10 a.m. Sunday, and the scene was later turned over to investigators.

Fire officials said unoccupied commercial buildings can pose added challenges for firefighters because of unknown contents and potentially limited fire protection systems.

An investigation into the cause of the fire is underway.

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page