Paul's Shrimp House sustains about $150,000 in damage in the blaze, which destroyed part of the dining room, authorities say.
By CANDACE RONDEAUX
Published April 13, 2004
TARPON SPRINGS - A fire destroyed part of the dining room of Paul's Shrimp House early Sunday, doing about $150,000 in damage to the popular Sponge Docks restaurant, authorities said Monday.
The blaze started a little after 4 a.m. Sunday, hours after workers closed the restaurant at 530 Athens St.
Tarpon Springs Fire Rescue officials said they received a call about smoke pouring from the roof of the restaurant about 4:10 a.m. Sunday.
Firefighters arrived minutes after the call and extinguished the blaze 20 minutes later, Tarpon Springs Fire Rescue spokesman Capt. Don Sayre said.
No one was in the building when the fire broke out, and no one was injured.
The fire started when a smoldering cigarette ignited a table and spread to a nearby wall in the dining room, Sayre said.
Paul's Shrimp House was closed for repairs Monday morning while about a dozen people cleared away charred tables, chairs and other debris. Restaurant owner Michael Tsalickis, 47, declined to comment Monday.
Sunday morning's blaze at Paul's Shrimp House marked the fourth time in nearly six months that fire closed a Sponge Docks-area restaurant.
In December, a small fire in the heating ducts at Louis' Pappas Riverside restaurant did $30,000 in damage.
Two weeks later, fire ripped through the second floor of Ballyhoo Grill on N Pinellas Avenue. A fire in late February temporarily closed the popular Mullet Boat seafood restaurant on Pinellas Avenue.
Fire investigators do not believe the spate of Sponge Docks restaurant fires are in any way related, Sayre said. "It's coincidental," Sayre said. "The only way they're related is that they all happened near the Sponge Docks."
