Crime & Safety

LA Cafe: Lost in the Fire Debate

New Lenox Fire Chief Jon Mead responds to some reader comments and questions following the Jan. 28 blaze that took down the popular Mexican restaurant.

Any time a favorite restaurant is lost, fans are going to be upset. That response was expected after the popular in the early hours Jan. 28.

But where is that anger directed? For some readers, they called out the , which is located directly across the street from the restaurant, for not getting there quickly enough.

Here are the facts:

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  • An employee called the Fire District at 6:12 a.m.
  • The Fire District was out the door by 6:13 a.m.
  • The fire began in the kitchen as a grease fire.
  • The area a fire covers doubles every 30 seconds.

Fire Chief Jon Mead said the reason for 's destruction wasn't a slow response, but a difficult task upon arrival.

Because of remodeling, including new walls and a ceiling, there was lots of concealed spaces throughout the restaurant that allowed flames to travel through the duct work and spread in void spaces that were initially difficult to break into.

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"Until we find those concealed spaces and get water in there, we’re kind of at the fire’s mercy," Mead said.

Although the remodeling work hurt LA Cafe, the wall stops helped firefighters contain the blaze to the front of the building and kept the other businesses in that strip center from catching fire, a point he believes was lost in the reaction.

"They did a good job," Mead said of the firefighters. "Don’t look at the damage, look at what was saved. That’s 80 percent of the building."

Other readers weren't upset with the fire response, but an apparent lack of fire prevention.

Why weren't there sprinklers? Mead said LA Cafe did not have sprinklers, which could have helped reduce the spread of the fire outside of the kitchen. There's currently no village code that requires sprinklers in businesses, but that’s something Mead said he would like to discuss with the village.

"Our intention is to talk with the village, and this was long before the LA Cafe fire," he said.

What happened with the Ansul system? Readers questioned why the restaurant's fire suppression system in the kitchen didn't stop the blaze. Mead said he's not sure if it malfunctioned or was triggered but failed to stop the fire. That's still being investigated.

The Fire District, as well as insurance agents, inspect businesses at least once a year. LA Cafe was last inspected in late September 2011, and at the time the fire suppression system appeared to be working fine.

Was there a problem with grease buildup? Mead wasn't sure about this, because restaurants each have their own policy for filtering out grease. He said he believes LA Cafe had a very clean kitchen, though. Mead was the fire marshal in Richton Park and remembers inspecting the LA Cafe location there, which he called a “top-notch kitchen” and has no reason to believe the New Lenox location would have been any different.

"It would have come out in the inspection reports if they had a dirty or unsafe kitchen," Mead said.

There were lots of questions and comments following the fire, but the most prevalent were the ones from loyal customers sad to see a favorite go.


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