New Asia’s Kitchen Catches On Fire

A kitchen fire in New Asia Chinese Restaurant triggered an alarm yesterday around 4 p.m., summoning the Cambridge Fire Department and at least four of their fire trucks to the scene.

By 4:30 p.m. yesterday, the fire—which never left the kitchen, according to John Cotter, a deputy with the Cambridge Fire Department—was extinguished, and police officers and firefighters were beginning to leave.

No one was injured in the fire. Additionally, since it started between the restaurant’s lunch and dinner hours, no customers were present during the fire, Cotter said. The restaurant had begun to prepare for dinner when the flames ignited.

One automatic fire-extinguishing system in the kitchen kicked in and began to put out the fire before the fire trucks arrived, Cotter said. Then the fire department “finished it off with the hose line,” he said.

City officials blocked the stretch of Mass. Ave. in front of New Asia while they were combatting the fire.

The kitchen suffered minor damage, but none of the adjacent restaurants were affected by the flames, Cotter said.

Tajine, a Moroccan restaurant that sits next door to New Asia, accumulated some smoke inside. At 4:30 p.m. yesterday, Tajine still had its door propped open to ventilate the inside of the building.

Ali Sati, who owns Tajine, stood inside wearing a jacket and described the temperature inside the building as “freezing.”

But despite the limited amounts of smoke, he said, “Everything is fine, thank god.” He said he was happy with the way the city of Cambridge responded to the problem.

New Asia sits at 1105 Massachusetts Avenue, east of the intersection of Mt. Auburn Street and Mass. Ave. below Dolphin Seafood.

As the fire department began to leave, a pair of onlookers asked this reporter which establishment had been aflame. Outside New Asia, there were few signs that a fire had taken place. Traces of water remained on the sidewalk and the smell of smoke still lingered in the air, but otherwise not much had changed, at least on the outside.

It is unclear when the restaurant will open for business again.

—Staff writer Eric P. Newcomer can be reached at newcomer@fas.harvard.edu.