Quick re­sponse by fire­fight­ers from the Mon Re­pos Fire Head­quar­ters pre­vent­ed what could have been a mul­ti­mil­lion-dol­lar fire at Gold­en Palace Food & Grill Can­teen in Mara­bel­la yes­ter­day morn­ing. 

The fire start­ed at 5.50 am in the kitchen area of the busi­ness, which is lo­cat­ed on the ground lev­el of the two-storey build­ing at South­ern Main Road.

A po­lice re­port stat­ed that at 5.35 am, Ju­liana Baswell, a cook, placed a wok pot with oil on the stove to be heat­ed, and about 15 min­utes lat­er the pot caught on fire. The man­ag­er at­tempt­ed to ex­tin­guish the blaze with a fire ex­tin­guish­er but was un­suc­cess­ful due to the ex­ces­sive smoke. 

Baswell, the man­ag­er, and an­oth­er em­ploy­ee evac­u­at­ed the build­ing.

Fire­fight­ers re­spond­ed and ex­tin­guished the flames. The dam­age was es­ti­mat­ed at $250,000. Mara­bel­la po­lice al­so vis­it­ed the scene. —Sascha Wil­son