From The Tribune staff reports
TRUSSVILLE — Trussville Fire and Police Department responded to a fire at Kemp’s Kitchen on Monday, November 29, around 10:20 p.m.
According to the Trussville Fire Department, Trussville Fire received an alert that a smoke detector was set off at Kemp’s Kitchen. When firefighters arrived on the scene, the fire was well involved but was able to get the fire under control in a timely manner. Trussville Fire Department’s Chief Tim Shotts said the fire is assumed to have started in the kitchen, but further investigation is underway to determine the cause of the fire.
“Our investigator will be down there today investigating,” Shotts said. “He’ll go through there and see if we can find the cause. That will tell us whether it was [arson] or it wasn’t, but at this point, nothing is obvious, but we won’t know that definitively until sometime later on.”
Trussville Police Department’s Lieutenant Clint Riner said that Trussville Police were called to help assist with traffic control for the fire department.
“The business was unoccupied at the time of the fire,” Riner said. “There were no injuries, forced entry was made to control the fire, and all utilities arrived on scene to shut down all feed to the business.”
The fire is being investigated by the Trussville Fire Department’s fire marshal.
Kemp’s Kitchen owner, Brian Kemp, said they are grateful for the community of Trussville, and they hope to continue to serve Trussville in the future.
“We plan on rebuilding and coming back stronger,” Kemp said. “We love and are very thankful for Trussville; our community has been great to us, especially at this location.”
Kemp said they are moving the Trussville employees to the Gardendale location to ensure they still have jobs.
“Possibly with the city of Trussville blessing, we’ll bring our food trailer over on certain days of the week to let the community have something have like a drive-thru food trailer for folks to be able to come to,” Kemp said. “That’s just kind of what I’m thinking. God’s got a plan for it all, may not understand it at the moment, but that’s what we’re kind of looking at.”
Kemp does not know when Kemp’s Kitchen will reopen in Trussville, but he says that the Kemp’s Kitchen in Gardendale will be open, even on Sundays.
Photos of the fire can be found here.
The story will be updated when more information is available.