Sonic resumes operations after bathroom fire
Staff writer
There was a small fire at the Sonic in Hillsboro on Saturday in the early afternoon. The fire was contained to a wall of the women’s restroom.
“We feel very fortunate that the damage was not more severe,” store owner Jason Sjorlund said.
Sjorlund said the cause of the fire, though still under investigation, appears to have been electrical. The damage was confined mainly to one wall.
Sjorlund didn’t know whether employees or patrons discovered the fire. The smell of smoke began permeating the restaurant and the fire department was called.
“The fire department did a great job of handling the situation as quickly as possible,” Sjorlund said.
Sections of a wall in the bathroom had to be removed to get to the source of the fire. Because the restaurant has two restrooms, it will continue to operate regularly, but with one unisex bathroom.
Sonic was closed for several hours in the wake of the fire, but was able to re-open before the scheduled closing time Saturday.
“I’d estimate that we lost about a half day’s business,” Sjorlund said.
The restaurant is now operating under its normal hours.