Fire damages Manhattan Beach’s Strand House

A fire crew waits outside the Strand House in downtown Manhattan Beach after knocking down an early morning blaze. Photo by Ryan Mcdonald

A fire started after business hours inside the Strand House restaurant early Saturday morning, damaging the popular downtown Manhattan Beach eatery and forcing its temporary closure, firefighters said.

The Manhattan Beach Fire Department received a call about the blaze about 4:30 a.m. from a crew scheduled to clean the restaurant, said MBFD Batallion Chief Scott Hafdell. Firefighters arrived to find light smoke coming from the building’s second story.

Firefighters dispatched two crews to battle the fire: one reached the roof from an engine ladder, and the other went in through the main entrance and made their way to the kitchen, Hafdell said. Although the blaze was relatively small, it had spread to other parts of the restaurant, including the walls and ceiling, and was difficult to fully extinguish.

No one was hurt in the fire.

Firefighters knocked down the fire about 6:30 a.m., Hafdell said. As of 9 a.m. streets surrounding the Manhattan Beach Boulevard location were blocked with emergency vehicles, and foam used in battling the flames ran along the asphalt.

Managers from the restaurant were on the scene Saturday morning discussing the blaze with firefighters, as was City Manager Mark Danaj. A post from the restaurant’s Instagram account said that the restaurant would be closed four to five days, but Hafdell estimated that it would take at least a week for the restaurant to reopen.

Although the blaze is thought to have begun in the kitchen, investigators were still trying to determine the cause, Hafdell said. 

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