Fire severely damages former Uniontown restaurant

Residents of nearby duplex safely evacuated

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A fire extensively damaged the former Sam's Restaurant building in Uniontown early Monday morning, also spreading to the top of an adjacent duplex. Crews spent five hours on scene battling the fire. [Ed Riedmann]

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Firefighters from four local departments responded to Monday morning's fire at a vacant former restaurant building in Uniontown. Residents of an adjacent duplex damaged in the fire were safely evacuated from the building. [Ed Riedmann]

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A former restaurant building in Uniontown was gutted by a fire early Monday morning.

Shortly after 2 a.m., the Uniontown Fire Department was called out to a fire at the former Sam’s Restaurant site at 208 Morgantown St., said Chief Scott Conn.

Conn said the fire caused extensive damage throughout the restaurant building, collapsing the roof and gutting the structure of the second floor.

The building was the longtime home of Sam’s Restaurant, and had most recently been the home of the From Scratch coffee shop and bakery, which closed in July.

Being in an open-end space like a former restaurant makes fire harder to contain, Conn said.

“A lot of times, walls are your best friend in a fire, especially if it’s a rated wall and they hold and contain the fire,” he said. “…Once it hits that open space, it’s usually starting to race away from you pretty good.”

The fire also spread to a home less than two feet away that had been converted into a duplex, Conn said. Firefighters were able to confine the fire to the attic and safely evacuate residents from the building.

Residents of the duplex had not been unaware of the fire until firefighters banged on the door, Conn said.

“The first thing that we address at any scene that we pull onto is life safety … they did a good job with that,” Conn said. “It was smart, heads-up tactics.”

Hanna El-Ayazra, who owns both buildings, found out about the fire from one of his employees.

“I freaked out,” he said. “I went up there and saw the fire trucks, and state police and everybody there. None of them had any idea where it started.”

El-Ayazra was still “dumbfounded” by the news Monday afternoon. While he doesn’t want to be in the restaurant business anymore, he still wants to hang on to that building, he said.

Four local departments responded, along with Fayette EMS, the Pennsylvania State Police and the state police fire marshal, which is investigating the cause of origin.

Departments cleared the scene around 7 a.m., returning later for an extensive cleanup, Conn said.