FALLSTON, Md. — A cleaning crew showed up outside the back of Natalie’s Seafood Kitchen early Friday morning and were confronted by a virtual inferno.
Days later, the cleanup continues, but Co-Owner Lou Petrucci says the damage was limited.
“It’s been limited to our auxiliary building,” said Petrucci, “We had some issues with our audio/video equipment getting burned, our internet getting burned, things like that that kind of inconvenience, but it’s nothing to what it could be and thank God that nobody was hurt.”
A review of the restaurant’s security cameras ultimately showed what sparked the flames.
“What happened was the heat pump started smoking around three or four hours earlier,” Petrucci told us, “That caught on to… it was like a perfect storm… caught on to a bucket of dirty linens that the linen company would be picking up and that in turn burned the safety valve off a large propane tank and that shot up like a big, big lighter if you will.”
In the aftermath of the fire, Petrucci says business tailed off at the restaurant and bar, but he wants to assure patrons that it’s safe to return.
“We are a hundred percent. We’re fully open,” said Petrucci, “We did close on Friday night. We closed Nat’s Hut, which is where we have our live music. It’s very popular with our guests and we closed that on Friday, but on Saturday, we opened it and we’re fully open and we’re ready for everyone to come and join us for a good time.”
In addition to the restaurant rebounding on Saturday, Natalie’s Seafood’s catering handled 15 scheduled events over the weekend without a single cancellation.
