The marquee sign on a Midtown McDonald’s caught on fire Monday morning, prompting employees to evacuate.

The fire was reported around 9:15 a.m. after an off-duty Atlanta firefighter called 911 as he drove by on his way home, fire Capt. Justin Turner said.

All of the Northside Drive restaurant’s employees, who were in the middle of preparing food, evacuated quickly after a drive-thru worker alerted everyone to the smell of smoke, franchise owner D.J. Mitchell said.

“Everybody is safe,” he said. “We’re just working on getting ’em over to different restaurants.”

The fire was coming from the sign atop the roof, Turner said. The building’s interior had minor smoke and water damage, he added.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.

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Fulton DA Fani Willis (center) with Nathan J. Wade (right), the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case and had a romantic relationship with, at a news conference announcing charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others in Atlanta, Aug. 14, 2023. Georgia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, upheld an appeals court's decision to disqualify Willis from the election interference case against Trump and his allies. (Kenny Holston/New York Times)

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