Cause of fire under investigation
By: Joseph Harvie
A fire that damaged the Shogun 27 Japanese restaurant on Route 27 Saturday morning has left the establishment closed, police said.
According to police, township Patrol Officers Joseph Marrero and John Sweeney discovered the fire after responding to a burglar alarm at the restaurant at 4:55 a.m. Police said the officers went to the side of the building and saw an orange glow coming from the bottom of a door.
The Kendall Park, Monmouth Junction and Kendall Park fire departments responded to the fire, which police said was contained by 50 firefighters within 25 minutes of the call, only damaging one room of the restaurant. Much of the rest of the restaurant suffered heavy smoke damage. Police said that because the fire burnt through a wall it burnt the wire for the burglar alarm, which set it off.
"We had heavy smoke upon forcing our way into the building," said Kendall Park Fire Chief Chris Perez in a press release. "The initial firefighters spearheaded an aggressive attack to limit the fire’s spread. Their efforts contained the blaze to one section of the restaurant."
Fire officials stayed at the scene for several hours after bringing it under control to make sure it didn’t spark up again.
The South Brunswick Fire Safety Bureau is investigating the cause of the fire. Preliminary indications are that the fire started in the storage room and burned for sometime before being detected.
There were no injuries in the fire. The South Brunswick Health Department will inspect Shogun prior to its re-opening.
The fire does not appear suspicious at this time.

