Fire totals pizza restaurant and apartments in Florida

BY NATHAN MAYBERG
FLORIDA — A fire that started in an apartment above Rookie's Restaurant & Pizzeria, took down the entire apartment building and destroyed the downstairs pizza parlor on Main Street in the village of Florida Tuesday evening. No one was injured.

The fire is believed to have started at about 8:15 p.m. after a tenant in one of the apartments fell asleep after starting to cook chicken on a frying pan, building owner Frank Skountzos said. "The guy was cooking and he went to sleep," Skountzos said. The grease caught on fire, he said.

A worker in the pizza restaurant first noticed the smoke and went upstairs to wake up and notify the tenant in the apartment where the fire started. There were four apartments upstairs according to Skountzos.

Another tenant, who was disabled in a wheelchair, was in the hospital at the time and another was out of the area.

Skountzos said the tenants have found other people to stay with.

Skountzos, of Slate Hill, bought the building in 2000 and operated a pizza restaurant there before leasing out the space to the current operators of Rookie's Restaurant & Pizzeria.

The owners of the pizzeria have asked him to lease out space at the building when he reopens, but he isn't sure if he will. "I don't know. It depends on the insurance," he said.

"It's an empty feeling," Skountzos said. "I feel bad for the building."

The base brick structure of the pizzeria was still intact, and believed to be more than 100 years old. But inside the restaurant, there was extensive damage.

"There is nothing to be salvaged," he said. "It's pretty much like death."

The pizza restaurant is right next door to the more than 200-year-old home of former governor and U.S. Secretary of State William Seward. The Seward property was unscathed by the blaze.

Robert Knebel, who owns three buildings across the street, accompanied Skountzos on Wednesday and lent him support. "I feel sorry for him," he said.