Pizzamania, a beloved pizza restaurant and a Whittier staple for more than 50 years, burned down Tuesday morning in a fire the owner believes may have been intentionally set.
The Pizza Hut and four other businesses were damaged after a fire was reported at 2:25 a.m. at a strip mall in the 13500 block of Telegraph Road, Los Angeles County fire officials said.
Firefighters arrived to find the five businesses engulfed in flames. The fire was extinguished at 03:04
Patrons and passersby posted pictures of fire on social mediaand expressed sadness at the loss of the restaurant that has been a fixture in the community for decades.
“NO!!!!” one person posted on Instagram, followed by a series of crying emojis.
A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department said the cause of the fire is under investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
“Someone came by and lit it on fire,” said Warren Haines, one of the restaurant’s co-owners.
Video cameras from the restaurant were destroyed in the fire, but Haines said video from one of the nearby businesses showed what appeared to be someone intentionally setting the fire.
Haines, who started the restaurant in 1973 with his business partner, Jim Barrit, said the person appeared to be targeting Pizzamania.
Investigators were searching the area for more surveillance footage, he said.
Officials with the Sheriff’s Department did not immediately respond to inquiries about the fire.
The fire put about 50 employees at the restaurant out of work, he said.
“I’m pissed off,” he said. “It takes the wind out of your sails.”
Just hours after the fire, Haines said his son, who handles social media for the restaurant, had received more than 700 emails from customers devastated by the news and wondering how they could help.
He said he was touched by their outreach and understands that Pizzamania was an icon in the community for decades.
“They call, and half of them are in tears,” he said. “It means everything to me.”
Haines said he’s rolling over the fire but intends to keep Pizzamania alive.
“We are an institution,” he said. “I intend to rebuild.”