Kansas City area restaurant and bookstore damaged in fire
Two Overland Park businesses sustained damage after a fire broke out Wednesday morning.
An Overland Park police officer reported a fire at the Torreador restaurant near 79th and Floyd Street around 2 a.m. Firefighters from both Overland Park and Lenexa responded to the scene and reported seeing smoke and fire coming from the back of the building, according to Jason Rhodes, media manager for the Overland Park Fire Department.
Firefighters were able to quickly extinguish the fire and discovered it was accelerated by an electrical panel, according to Rhodes, and disconnected the power to the building.
The Torreador sustained moderate fire damage, but considerable smoke damage, according to Rhodes.
Monstera’s Books also suffered moderate smoke damage. In an Instagram post Wednesday morning, owners of Monstera’s Books said they would reopen soon.
“Our building is still standing tall, and we will open again soon. We are temporarily closed while we clean up, restock inventory, and make sure our building is safe to return to,” they said in the post.
No one was inside during the fire, according to Rhodes.
Thursday afternoon, the fire department said investigators had ruled the fire as accidental in nature. While the fire was likely electrical in nature, they said, investigators were unable to pinpoint the exact cause. Investigators did note that nothing suspicious was found, Rhodes said in an update.
