Remington’s Blacksauce Kitchen was damaged by a fire early Friday morning.
Video posted to YouTube shows flames and smoke billowing out of the the W. 29th Street structure as the Baltimore City Fire Department arrives. Watch it below.
On Facebook and Instagram, Blacksauce Kitchen posted the following statement this evening: “We’ve always known that you all are the best family, friends, customers, and neighbors. Never has that been more apparent than today. Thank you for all of your thoughts, emails, texts, prayers, and love; they are most appreciated. We will not be at the waverly market tomorrow. We will do our best to keep you all updated.”
The fire department told The Sun units responded to a call at 4:13 a.m. Friday and had the blaze under control by 5 a.m. No injuries were reported and the cause of the fire is still being investigated, the department said.
But two sources who witnessed the blaze said it first occurred closer to 1 a.m. and sent time-stamped confirmation.
Remington resident Zachary Swope, who can see the restaurant from the third story of his house, said he woke up to the sound of sawing about 1 a.m. and saw firefighters working to open the roof. He only saw smoke at that point.
Swope said he went outside to see what was going on and noticed four or five engines blocking off the street. It looked like firefighters had the blaze under control, and he said he heard trucks pulling away.
He was awoken again close to 4 a.m. by sirens as more trucks arrived on the scene.
When asked about these accounts, Baltimore City Fire Department spokeswoman Blair Skinner reiterated, “That’s what time the page came out, 4:13 a.m.”
A review of archived scanner dispatches corroborated the sources’ accounts. At about 12:45 a.m., a call went out for “28th and Miles Avenue,” which is one block directly south of Blacksauce Kitchen, “for a restaurant fire.” The man on the radio later added, “reporting Blacksauce on fire.”
At 12:50 a.m., the address was corrected to “29th Street and Miles.”
Hours later, at 4:13 a.m., dispatchers reported a fire at 401 W. 29th Street, Blacksauce’s exact address.
A popular destination for its handmade biscuits, Blacksauce opened its Remington location last year. Though Blacksauce operates primarily as a catering business and farmers’ market vendor, it is open to serve meals on Thursdays.
Shannon Conway, a community organizer with the Greater Remington Improvement Association, released the following statement: “We’re devastated by last night’s fire at Blacksauce Kitchen, which has become a fixture in our neighborhood in their short time here. We are here to support Blacksauce and their staff in any way we can, including working to find temporary space, funding and any other resources needed.”
This post has been updated.
The 4:13 call was the second call about the fire. The fire department had come earlier that night (somewhere around midnight ?) to respond to the first call and had cleared out by about 3 AM. Not sure why this isn’t being mentioned in any of the articles about the fire. You can hear in the second video that the guy says “it caught back on fire” and you can see the windows and doors were already removed/busted out.
We’ve updated our story after confirming with two sources. You can also drop me a line at brandonweigel@baltimorefishbowl.com if you have more information.
The Question is why didn’t the Fire Apparatus stay on the scene to fully determine if the fire inside of the building was extinguished , sounds like someone drop the ball on this one, thank goodness no one was hurt..