No Damage After Small Blaze at Restaurant

A small chimney fire broke out at The Red House Restaurant off JFK Street yesterday afternoon, flooding the area with smoke but leaving no damage and none injured.

According to Brian Kelly, manager of the upscale Winthrop Street restaurant, at around 3 p.m. yesterday Red House employees called the fire department after the flames in the restaurant’s fireplace got out of hand.

“It was just a chimney fire,” he said. “Someone was just too aggressive in setting the fire. It looked worse than it was.”

Kelly said that there was no damage.

“It was put out as soon as it started. We’re still opening tonight at 5 p.m. for dinner. It was over and done very quickly,” he said. “A couple of [people at tables] were still talking, but they were done with lunch. We just asked them to leave as a precaution.”

Witnesses said there was a considerable amount of smoke billowing from the building, and that a large number of fire trucks showed up at the scene.

Emily Edwards, who works at the Tower Records store across from The Red House, said there seemed to be a “ton” of firemen outside the restaurant.

“We just looked outside, and the sky was really bright and smoky,” she said.

Alex Slack ’06, who is a former editorial chair of The Crimson, also witnessed the activity outside the restaurant.

According to Slack, police had blocked off the portion of JFK Street between Mt. Auburn Street and Eliot Street, and three firetrucks responded to the fire.

But Kenneth Zimmerman, who was finishing a drink at The Red House when the fire took place, said all of the activity was an overreaction.

“It was really just a small chimney fire that just smoked up a lot,” he said. “They just put too much wood into the fire. There was no panic and no visible damage.”

The Cambridge Fire Department could not be reached for comment.

—Staff writer Reed B. Rayman can be reached at rrayman@fas.harvard.edu.