Grease fire closes restaurant

The Desloge Fire Department and several other departments were called to a first alarm commercial fire at Jack in the Box in Desloge just before 10:20 a.m. Sunday.

Upon arrival, dispatch notified emergency crews that it was a grease fire and that all employees and customers had been evacuated.

“We had two of our own pumpers on the scene,” said Larry Gremminger, Desloge fire chief. “The automatic suppression system had activated the automatic alarm over the fryer that was affected. 

“There was no smoke visible from the exterior. There was some grease smoke and chemical agent from the extinguishers inside the restaurant. It wasn’t a tremendous amount of smoke.”

Little, if any, damage was reported outside the area of the cooking equipment.

The store was immediately closed for business but was to reopen after proper inspection and cleaning.

Besides Desloge and Big River Fire Protection District, the Park Hills Fire Department was called to help aid at the scene and provide backup  for the city of Desloge.

Gremminger wanted to make a friendly reminder to motorists out driving, especially in wintry conditions.

“We like to point out it’s very important for people to pay attention at intersections,” said Gremminger. “We had a close call at an intersection where we had a fire truck coming up behind one vehicle and as we were approaching we anticipated a problem and luckily we were at a manageable speed and we were able to stop.

“People need to really put their cell phones down around intersections and pay attention to emergency vehicles because there really too big to stop on a dime.”

A late morning grease fire at the Jack in the Box in Desloge gets the attention and response from area fire departments. 

Korey Johnson is a reporter for the Daily Journal and can be reached at 573-518-3616 or Kjohnson@dailyjournalonline.com