Smokehouse Restaurant, Prattville, AL Grease Fire, No Sprinklers

http://www.prattvilleprogress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080423/PROGRESS01/804230311/1041/progress01 

Popular restaurant lives up to its name

Firefighters from Millbrook, Deatsville, Elmore, and Coosada fire departments re­sponded to the fire.

-- Sarah Hubbard, Special to the Progress

By Hamilton Richardson
Progress staff writer
 

A Millbrook dining favorite almost went up in smoke April 15, as the Smokehouse Barbecue restaurant on Main Street caught fire.

Pam Kilpatrick, a Millbrook resident, had just eaten lunch at the restaurant and left at ap­proximately 1 p.m.

"I had lunch at about 12:30 then went to Home Depot for about 45 minutes," said Kilpa­trick. "When I came back, I saw flames shooting out in two direc­tions." Kilpatrick said that the flames were also coming out the front doors.

According to Kilpatrick, a television interview was going on inside as she left to go shop­ping. When she returned at about 2:30, she saw what was happening and watched the fire from the Dollar General across the street. There were already two Millbrook Fire Department trucks and the Millbrook Police Department was on the scene.

The Smokehouse typically closes at 2 p.m. after the lunch rush is over, so all customers had already left.

Fire trucks from Millbrook, Deatsville, Elmore and Coosada responded to the fire, which took approximately 30 minutes to get under control.

Millbrook Fire Marshall Doyle Campbell was inside on the attack line during the fire. According to Campbell, a grease fire erupted in the kitchen.

"All the right things hap­pened at the wrong time," said Campbell. "There was leak of some kind in the deep fryer which allowed hot grease to spray out, which then ignited."

The owner of the Smoke­house, Laura McLeod, was there when the grease ignited, along with another employee. The em­ployee had grease spray on his pants but was unhurt, McLeod said.

"People don't realize when they're dealing with hot grease how volatile it can be," said Campbell.

The kitchen was the area that received the most damage, although there was also smoke and heat damage to other areas of the restaurant.

"The south end of the build­ing received heavy fire damage. The building had no water sprinklers because it was in ex­istence before the code came into play," said Campbell.