The owner of a fire-hit Perth restaurant is battling to get it back up and running in time for T in the Park – one of their busiest weekends of the year.
Firefighters broke down the doors at Tabla Indian Restaurant after a blaze broke out at around 4.20pm.
Praveen Kumar estimates that the damage in the kitchen at the South Street premises will cost thousands of pounds to fix.
Yesterday he began the process of repairing the damage, beginning with an electrician to make the property safe, however Tabla will remain closed until a deep clean has taken place.
Praveen said: “This is a disaster — this weekend in Perth is one of the busiest of the year for me with T in the Park taking place.
“I’m pulling out all the stops to have the damage repaired as soon as possible.
“I have tradesmen going in this morning and I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that we can be up and running for business so I can honour as many of bookings as possible.
“I hope I can be open again by Friday — I simply can’t afford to lose the amount of business that
I’ve booked for over the entire weekend.”
He added: “At this stage, I’ve no idea what caused the fire.
“All I know is it took hold in the dishwasher area. The fire broke out between the end of lunchtime service and the start of evening service yesterday.
“At least no one was in the restaurant at the time so no one was injured.”
Fire incident, South Street, Perth https://t.co/pTuLvm51gl
— NinianReid (@NinianReid) July 5, 2016
Praveen was first alerted to the blaze by a member of the public who had spotted the fire.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) said: “Two appliances from Perth along with 13 firefighters attended the blaze in the kitchen of the restaurant.”
Brian Robertson, the SFRS’s station manager for Perth, said an investigation into the cause of the blaze is underway. He said: “We had a well-established fire in the rear kitchen.
“The crew had to force entry and four firefighters with breathing apparatus brought the fire under control within around 15 minutes.
“We’ve started a joint investigation with Police Scotland to establish the cause.”
