Kitchen fire at Smoking Mo's

Damaged contained

Matt Baide | Feb 09, 20230

Courtesy photo count

Central Mason Fire & EMS responded to a kitchen fire at Smoking Mo's restaurant about 10:40 p.m. Feb. 2 at the corner of West Grove Street and South First Street in Shelton.

A kitchen fire at Smoking Mo's on Feb. 2 caused damage to the downtown Shelton restaurant.

According to a news release from Central Mason Fire & EMS, crews found a kitchen fire. The incident was considered a commercial building fire, which added additional units to respond. The sprinkler system in the building activated, keeping the fire small and limiting damage. Fire damage was mostly contained to the kitchen area, but the rest of the restaurant sustained some smoke and water damage.

The business was closed at the time of the fire and no one was hurt. Owners Thomas Beben and Monica "Mo" Carvajal-Beben were in Mexico when the fire happened, according to a Smoking Mo's Facebook post.

"Tom and I are currently in Mexico," a Facebook post reads. "Not the way you want to be awakened in the middle of the night in a different country, but we're putting the pieces together as best we can from here. We are packing our bags right now and should be home tonight. The most important thing to report is that nobody was hurt. Our staff had all just left for the night, and aside from some sad faces and shaken nerves, they're all okay. We owe a GIANT Thank You to all of the first responders that showed up within minutes and were able to get the fire out before it had a chance to spread. They even stayed late to help clean up the standing water that flooded the floors as best they could under the circumstances. We are extremely grateful for them, and we're thankful for our crew members that rushed down to relay to us what bits of information they could gather through the chaos. I know they were scared and worried too. We're sorry we weren't there with them."

The restaurant let people know its beer and merchandise were safe. It hosted a sale from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday under the garage door. Meat and kegs were also intact in the walk-in freezer, and friend of Smoking Mo's, Jeff Florek of Pig Boys BBQ, set up a pit along with the sale of beer and merchandise to provide some barbecue meat.

"Thank you to everybody that stood outside in the freezing cold to support us today," a Facebook post from Sunday evening reads. "Thank you to everyone that dropped money into the tip jar. That forgave us for the chaos. That bought t-shirts and beer even after we ran out of food, just to be able to show some kind of support. Thank you to every single person that has reached out to us online. Thank you for sharing our posts and keeping our story alive. Thank you for the sweet gifts. Thank you for the hugs, we all feel loved and held. No fire can take that away from us.

"I think the thing we're most moved by today though is this, you've all given us the motivation to keep fighting, not just for ourselves, but for our town. A line wrapped around the block for hours full of people that want to see Smoking Mo's and High Steel succeed. Failing is not an option. This means too much to too many people. And so, we're going to show our appreciation the only way we can think of, to fight with every ounce of our being to get this business open again, and to continue to support our community in every way we can."