Teriyaki Kitchen suffers minor damage in fire

The Teriyaki Kitchen restaurant on Nucleus Avenue suffered minor damage from a kitchen fire Wednesday night, but the incident required the building, which has apartments upstairs, to be evacuated temporarily as well.

Columbia Falls Fire Chief Karl Weeks said the call came in at 8:37 p.m. and firefighters were on the scene at 8:41 p.m. The restaurant was not open at the time of the fire. 

The fire tripped one of the automatic sprinklers in the kitchen and was caused by an electrical problem, Weeks said. He said there was little damage from the fire itself, but it would take a few days to clean things up to get the restaurant back open. It looked like contractors were already doing that on Thursday. 

Weeks said Nucleus Avenue was closed down when firefighters were on the scene. Whitefish and Evergreen responded with mutual aid, which is standard on fires inside the city limits. 

Firefighters were clear of the scene at 11:04 p.m.