By Jessica Fleming
The St. Paul Pioneer Press
EAGAN, Minn. — About two years ago, Hussein Ansari and his sons and daughter put everything they had into opening a restaurant in Eagan.
Early Wednesday morning, it all went up in flames.
Eagan Fire Chief Mike Scott said his department arrived at Ansari’s Mediterranean Grill about 4:45 a.m. More than six hours later, the fire was out. No one was injured, but Scott said the building is likely a total loss.
“It seems like it’s all lost,” an exhausted Ansari said Wednesday afternoon. “It’s sad because all the people that worked there, it’s all the income they had.”
The fire, which likely started in the area of a rooftop heating unit, took five area fire departments and 100 firefighters to extinguish, Scott said.
The frigid temperatures were to blame for the massive manpower required. Departments from Apple Valley, Burnsville, Bloomington, Mendota Heights and Inver Grove Heights responded.
“I can’t imagine a worse time to fight a fire,” Scott said. “It was 4 below when I was driving down there. ... Firefighters have nice, warm clothes, but no matter what you’re wearing in this weather, it’s not enough.”
Scott said equipment was freezing up as fast as firefighters’ hands.
“Your hands at some point just stop functioning, even with gloves on,” he said.
Firefighters’ air packs stopped working as condensation froze, so they’d have to go get new ones before going back in to fight the fire, he said.
One of Eagan’s ladder trucks froze up, he said, and an Apple Valley truck refused to start and had to be towed.
In addition, water poured on the fire created an “ice rink” in the parking lot. Scott said several firefighters fell.
Despite the difficulties, no firefighters got frostbite or were otherwise injured while fighting the fire.
Ansari was co-founder of Mediterranean Cruise Cafe, which was located in Eagan for decades until the city acquired its building by use of eminent domain in 2008.
His brother, Jamal Ansari, took over full ownership of the Mediterranean Cruise Cafe in the late 1990s. As the cafe prepared to relocate in Burnsville, in late 2008, Hussein Ansari and his four sons and daughter filled the city’s Middle Eastern food void by opening Ansari’s.
“At least they are all safe,” Jamal Ansari said of his brother’s family. “What can you do? They can always open another place, and hopefully, everything will work out well.”
Hussein Ansari said it was too soon to say what would happen with the building, which he does not own. He said the family was insured for the items they owned.
Firefighters, however, were able to salvage rare fish out of an aquarium in the entryway.
“The owners were very worried about the fish, so firefighters hooked up a generator to the aquarium,” Scott said.
When a person the Ansaris hired to transport the fish arrived, firefighters scooped out the fish, including a 2-foot eel, with a net.
“The owner had a lot of attachment to them, so we wanted to help try and get them out,” Scott said. “Hopefully, they survive.”
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