Off Vine Restaurant Fire: 'You could feel the heat taking over'

On this evening's earlier story about the fire at Off Vine, a reader posted their experience in the comments section:

I was eating here with my family and friends for the first time after attending the play Wicked. The waiter had cleared our plates and we heard commotion on in the kitchen. I asked what was happening and was told there was a fire upstairs. We were seated in the table closest to the kitchen in the back and as we looked up towards the stairway which was beside us, we could see that it was totally engulfed in flames. You could feel the heat taking over. It was scary how fast the fire engulfed the upstairs. The saddest thing about this was that no one warned the cooks about the fire. The waiters all ran out and had time to get their backpacks but not to tell the cooks to get out!! Sheeesh! The parking valet next to the restaurant had to run in the back to get them out!!!!!

More photos from the aftermath by Robert Gross-Herndon are below along with good words from recent Yelp reviews.