DeKalb County firefighters at mid-morning today continued to pour water on the smoldering remnants of a Toco Hill restaurant destroyed by an overnight fire.
The two-alarm fire broke out around 2 a.m. at the LongHorn Steakhouse on North Druid Hills Road near Lavista Road.
No injuries were reported.
Channel 2 Action News reported that the blaze apparently started in the kitchen area of the restaurant. It took 35 firefighters about two hours to bring the flames under control.
“The main challenge was we had pretty significant fire volume on arrival,” DeKalb fire Battalion Chief Shane Dobson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“We also had an explosion early on,” Dobson said. “The origin of that explosion is still under investigation.”
One westbound lane of North Druid Hills Road remained blocked by fire equipment at 8:30 a.m., but all lanes of Lavista Road were open.
The restaurant chain, founded in Atlanta in 1981, operates more than 450 locations throughout the country, according to the LongHorn website.
In a statement, LongHorn officials said: “We are extremely thankful no one was inside the restaurant at the time of the fire. We appreciate the efforts of DeKalb County firefighters and are grateful they are all safe. Right now, the well-being of our team members is our number one priority. We are already working to place them at other LongHorn locations, as well as other Darden restaurants, in Atlanta.”
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