Burger Jim closed 2 to 4 weeks after Memorial Day fire

PALMER — Burger Jim was closed for Memorial Day when a cook got a call from a relative who works at Subway in the same building to tell of smoke coming from the Burger Jim establishment. Firefighters determined an electrical fire broke out from one of the coolers. Firefighters responded and entered through the rear entrance while a hole was cut in the roof to ventilate the structure. No one was hurt as no one was working at the time, but the burger and Chinese restaurant expects to be closed 2 to 4 weeks to repair the damages.

“It could’ve been a lot worse. Nobody was hurt,” said Ronald Tzou, owner at Burger Jim.

The fire broke out at about 3pm. on Monday. Early Tuesday morning, Tzou was working with the insurance company and electricians to repair damages and ensure safety in the kitchen. Tzou suspects that the outlet the cooler was plugged into overheated due to the rising temperatures burning the circuit.

“It was burnt enough we couldn’t tell if it was the cooler wiring or something else at the base of the coolers,” said Palmer Fire Captain John Prevost.

Prevost was the incident commander. Within 6 minutes of the call at 2:46 p.m., two command officers from Central Mat-Su and Palmer Fire were on scene. Thick black smoke was visible through the front doors, so firefighters cut a hole in the roof to allow for ventilation. Prevost said that smoke from floor to ceiling can be an indication of a potential back-draft.

“Before you breach that compartment, you want to vent vertically before you introduce oxygen,” said Prevost. “Because it presented the way it did, the best course of action was a vertical ventilation.”

Flames from the fire were contained to one corner of the Burger Jim kitchen but light smoke drifted into Midnight Sun Tanning and Subway.