<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hey Gary,<div><br></div><div>Really sorry to hear about Mrs. G. Good luck and I hope she feels better.</div><div><br></div><div>Elie & Janet</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://elieharriett.wordpress.com">http://elieharriett.wordpress.com</a></div><div><div><div>On Jul 22, 2008, at 9:39 PM, Eric Chun wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div class="hmmessage" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma; ">Several of the "Did I Err" t-shirt wearing crew ate here before:<br><br>--<br><br><a href="http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080626-1637-bn26fire2.html">http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080626-1637-bn26fire2.html</a><br><br><font class="sansmediumhead">Fire guts landmark Kansas City Barbeque<br><br></font><div class="byline">By Greg Gross and Susan Shroder</div><div class="credit">UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM</div>4:37 p.m. June 26, 2008<br><br>SAN DIEGO – A fire that started in an open cooking pit Thursday at Kansas City Barbeque gutted the landmark Marina area eatery, known for being in the 1986 Tom Cruise movie “Top Gun.” The fire broke out about 2:15 p.m. in the restaurant on West Market Street, located across the street from the Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel towers and near Seaport Village. It initially created so much smoke that clouds of it could be seen billowing behind Petco Park, where the Padres were playing an afternoon baseball game.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>A restaurant cook told firefighters the blaze flared up from inside the cooking pit and spread to the rest of the restaurant's interior, despite his efforts to put it out.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>A force of six engine companies and two truck companies, 45 firefighters in all, managed to keep the blaze from spreading to an adjoining office building and had the fire knocked down in about 20 minutes.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>But there was no saving the restaurant.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br><br>“It's gutted,” said Maurice Luque, San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesman. “It's destroyed.” The restaurant, which serves food such as barbecue ribs and chicken, was used for a bar scene in “Top Gun” where Cruise crooned to love target Kelly McGillis, and a sign in the restaurant noted that the jet jockey movie's “sleazy bar scene” was filmed there.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>Luque estimated damage at $250,000 to the structure and $150,000 to the contents, not including the cost of decades of memorabilia, including photographs and props from the film. Dozens of Navy caps and license plates hung on walls and ceilings.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>Firefighters found Navy flight helmets inside the dining area – melted.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>“It must've been a very intense fire,” Luque said. “You can see where the fire swirled around, then just took everything out.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>No one was injured. The only people inside at the time were five employees, including the cook. A few patrons were sitting on the patio outside; they quickly fled as the flames ravaged the interior.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>Another cook, Charles Ryan, 53, was taking a break outside when he saw the smoke billowing out the front door. But he wasn't alarmed – yet.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>“I've seen pit fires before. They're manageable,” said Ryan, who has worked at the restaurant for about six years. “Normally, you can put these things out; I've had a few of them myself. There's a hose right next to the pit.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>This time, however, the fire couldn't be contained. In the seconds it took Ryan to re-enter the establishment, “the whole kitchen was on fire and it was spreading out into the dining area,” he said.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>Sandra Angelo, a magazine columnist and author, lives across the street from the restaurant on the 12th floor of City Front Terrace, a condominium complex.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>She said her unit has a 280-degree view of downtown and San Diego Bay, and she was working at home typing a book when she saw smoke coming out of the chimney in the middle of the restaurant. She said it then got a little thicker, and “I just thought they were being a little enthusiastic with their barbecuing.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>But within minutes, she said the smoke became very thick.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>“It was just tons and tons of smoke,” she said, adding that it was “billowing out of every single window” and was as high as a nearby 40-story building.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>Railroad tracks used by the San Diego trolley and the Coaster commuter train run right behind the back of the restaurant. Had there been a freight train going by, it would have taken firefighters an extra 12 to 15 minutes to put the blaze out, Luque said.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>Rob Schupp, a spokesman for Metropolitan Transit District, said trolley service in the area was stopped for about 10 minutes while the fire was extinguished.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br><br><br><br><br><hr>Use video conversation to talk face-to-face with Windows Live Messenger.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.windowslive.com/messenger/connect_your_way.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Refresh_messenger_video_072008" target="_new">Get started.</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>_______________________________________________<br>Groop mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Groop@groo.com">Groop@groo.com</a><br><a href="http://mailman.newdream.net/mailman/listinfo.cgi/groop">http://mailman.newdream.net/mailman/listinfo.cgi/groop</a></div></span></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>