Monday update: Sunday blaze causes ‘very heavy’ smoke damage at El Jaripeo Mexican Restaurant

May 21--Although actual, visible flames were essentially non-existent on the exterior of the building when a fire broke out at El Jaripeo Authentic Mexican Restaurant on Crookston's north end late Sunday morning, the fire did extend above the ceiling into the attic before firefighters were able to extinguish it, and the restaurant suffered "very heavy" smoke damage, Crookston Fire Chief Tim Froeber tells the Times.

Employees in the building doing morning prep work in the kitchen when the fire broke out were treated at RiverView Health and released later on Sunday, Froeber said. Among them was El Jaripeo's owner, Jesus, who suffered burns on his hand and wrist. Jesus sat in the grass across the street with his employees and Crookston Area Ambulance Service paramedics, holding an ice pack on his hand, as firefighters battled the blaze.

An investigator with the State Fire Marshal's office was at the restaurant later on Sunday and so far has determined that the fire was accidental in nature. She has a pretty good idea of what actually started the fire, Froeber said, but she's going to wait until the insurance company completes their investigation before anything is publicly announced. "They do a lot of communicating back and forth, and no one wants to step on each other's investigation," Froeber said. "At this point, the best part is that everyone got out of there and they're OK, and that it was accidental." He added that he inspects insurance investigators to be on the scene Monday.

The call came in at 10:50 a.m. Sunday. It started in the kitchen area.

"There is flame damage in the back but it's not very extensive," Froeber explained. "Most of the damage was caused by very heavy smoke. With a restaurant there are so many materials that can burn, so you get a little bit of everything and it creates very heavy smoke in a hurry with all of the plastics. The smoke line is about halfway down the walls, so that's very heavy damage. It was all enclosed when we got there so nothing is able to escape." Firefighters had to pull "a bunch" of the ceiling down to get at the fire in the attic, he added.

CFD Captain Bob Magsam told the Times Sunday that he figured it would be a long time before El Jaripeo would be able to reopen.

As firefighters fought the fire, Magsam and Crookston Police Officer Dave Grabowski spoke with Jesus and other employees standing nearby, one still wearing her apron, trying to get information about how and where the fire started, but it was clear there was a language barrier. The restaurant staff spoke limited English, and firefighters and officers on scene didn't speak Spanish.

Then, Froeber said, he remembered Victor Obisakin, the University of Minnesota Crookston alum who has remained in Crookston, interviewed for an open firefighter position, and was hired last Thursday. "During the interview process he was explaining all these things to us, all about his background, and all of these languages that he could speak," Froeber recalled. "We were having difficulties communicating with the staff at the scene, and we decided to give Victor a call and he raced over there and he did all of the translating for us.

"It worked out really, really well. Victor's just an unbelievable guy," Froeber continued. "He hadn't even come in to talk with me yet to go over everything since we'd hired him, but we figured we'd take a shot and call him, and he was more than happy to come and help us."

El Jaripeo is located only a few hundred feet from the CFD's north-end, unmanned fire station, which was renovated and opened after the Crookston Firefighters Association purchased the former AutoGlass Specialists building. Froeber said having a north-end station resulted in a faster response time when Sunday's fire call came in.

"A bunch of the guys went there and we had trucks right away; the water supply truck came from the north station," Froeber said. "Having that north station is a huge benefit. If everything had to come from the south station, it just adds to our response time."

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