Restaurant fire linked to water heater failure
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- The remains of the Snow Dragon Chinese Restaurant building in Ephraim were demolished last week after a fire ignited in the building early in the morning on Monday, Aug. 10.
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- Charred rubble lies outside the Snow Dragon Chinese Restaurant building in Ephraim. A fire ignited in the building early in the morning on Monday, Aug. 10.
An investigation into a fire that burned the Ephraim building containing the Snow Dragon Chinese Restaurant has found the fire began due to a mechanical failure in the building’s water heater.
A call reporting the fire was received at 1:30 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 10, said Ephraim Fire Chief Jeff Hermansen. Crews from the Ephraim and Manti fire departments responded.
“When we arrived on scene, we had heavy fire and smoke coming out of the east side of the building out of the attic,” Hermansen said. The crews attempted to fight the fire back, but it spread to the entire building.
“The building is a total loss,” Hermansen said.
Representatives of the state fire marshal’s office arrived on site later that morning to do an investigation into the cause of the fire. “They determined it came from the water heater in the storage room of the building,” Hermansen said. “Some kind of a mechanical failure of the water heater.”
Theressa and Charles Alder owned the building for 53 years. Theressa said it was originally an A&W restaurant; the Alders then operated a restaurant called Charlie’s Drive In at the location for many years. They then began renting the building, and it was home to a Mexican restaurant called Los Amigos for about five years before it became the Snow Dragon Chinese Restaurant. The Snow Dragon operated in the building for about 20 years.
“It was really sad, but in a way it’s a blessing that no one was in the building” at the time of the fire, Theressa said. “The water heater erupted, it exploded. What the state fire marshal determined was the water heater exploded and broke the gas line, and once that happened, the whole building erupted.”
“We’re just grateful that no one was in the building at the time,” she said.
