A Chinese restaurant in Allentown will be closed “for quite a while” after it was damaged in a fire early Thursday.
Crews were called to the 500 block of North Seventh Street for a report of a fire on the first floor, according to city fire Capt. Jonathan Hammel. Happy Chinese Garden is on the first floor, and apartments are on the second and third floors.
Firefighters arrived and found smoke and fire, mainly to the rear of the first floor. It took crews about an hour to get the fire under control, Hammel said. The fire was largely contained to the restaurant.
“It’s going to be closed for quite a while,” the captain said. “It’s fairly significant.”
He was not sure how many people were displaced, but said only a few lived in the apartments above. All of them denied help from the Red Cross and are staying elsewhere. Damage to the upstairs apartments was minimal, Hammel said.
“They kept it really well-contained,” he said.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.