The ovens were off, but a local pizzeria was burning from a small fire that closed Court Street to traffic for about 10 minutes yesterday.
The awning above Goodfellas Pizza, 35 N. Court St., caught fire for a few minutes at about 12:45 p.m. yesterday. The fire was mostly out by the time the Athens Fire Department arrived.
A bystander hit it with an extinguisher and knocked it out for the most part
said Athens Fire Chief Robert Troxel. We just did a little overhaul on the roof to make sure there weren't any hot spots.
A cigarette dropped from either the roof or one of the upper levels onto the awning caused the fire.
This is the second cigarette fire at the North Court Street Goodfellas in about a month, Troxel said.
I think the owner is going to replace (the awning) with something flame proof or fire retardant he added.
Goodfellas responded to the fire by tweeting about it on its Twitter account.
Nice rustic smokey smell at the court street location but it won't keep us from selling great pizza. watch your cig butts people!
Although small fires such as these are common, they can also be costly for the city.
Rule of thumb that the fire chief (has given) me is that every time you call out a truck it's about $300 per truck
said Mayor Paul Wiehl.
There have also been multiple smoldering mulch fires throughout the city during the past two weeks, he said.
Put your cigarettes out. Don't throw the butts around.
el246506@ohiou.edu
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News
Elizabeth Lundblad
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Athens County firefighters extinguish a small, smoking fire on the roof of Goodfellas yesterday on Court Street. The street was blocked to traffic and many pedestrians stopped to see what was going on. The fire, which was lit by a cigarette butt thrown onto the awning, was mostly extinguished by a pedestrian before firefighters arrived on the scene. (Christine Lentz | FOR THE POST)
