The New Paltz Fire Department (NPFD) was dispatched to address a kitchen fire on Saturday, Sept. 30 at A Tavola Trattoria.
The fire was ignited on the Italian restaurant’s commercial cooking range-top during common-place, everyday usage. Due to an accumulation of grease, a flare-up occurred at 4:38 p.m.
Before First Assistant Fire Chief Cory Wirthmann arrived on the scene, the restaurant staff had already acted by throwing salt on the fire, causing it to decrease in size by the time Wirthmann effectively put it out. The fire was contained to the kitchen and was extinguished promptly upon the NPFD’s arrival. No damage was caused to the structure of the building or kitchen appliances, according to a press release distributed by the NPFD.
Wirthmann confirmed that A Tavola Tratoria has passed both their Fire Safety Inspection and Health Inspection in the past years, and years preceding.
“These press releases are important,” Wirthmann said. “Although this fire was small, it was in a highly visible area on Main Street, so it is good to let people know exactly what happened.”
The restaurant reopened the following evening at 5:30 p.m.