Vacant restaurant catches fire, spreads to nearby apartments in Uniontown
New details have emerged after a fire ripped through an old restaurant in Uniontown overnight and spread to nearby apartments.
Hours after the blaze, not much remains of the vacant old Sam's Restaurant on Morgantown Street in Uniontown. The fire broke out just after 2 a.m.
The Uniontown City Fire Department says it couldn't save the building, as the fire spread to the attic of nearby apartments.
The three people inside those apartments got out safely.
"We worked the building for about 10 minutes from the inside. Things started to get a little hairy and out of control, so we pulled the crews out," Chief Scott Conn said.
Chief Conn says the most recent business in this space, From Scratch, had been closed for several months.
Hanna El-Ayazra owns both the former restaurant and the apartments.
Chief assessor Rebecca Cieszynski confirmed to KDKA-TV that El-Ayazra owes nearly $30,000 in back taxes on the building.
El-Ayazra agreed to speak with KDKA-TV, but didn't want to show his face on camera. He said he doesn't believe the utilities were on when the fire started.
Asked if he had any idea how the fire started, El-Ayazra said, "I have no idea, but you know what, if you ask me, my theory, there is no fire that starts by itself. I don't care where you are at."
El-Ayazra said he was unsure of what would happen next following the fire.
The state fire marshal is looking at video surveillance and will determine where and how the fire started.
Chief Conn also said he was unsure of how the fire started.
