NORTHAMPTON — An afternoon fire forced the evacuation of Indigo Coffee at 660 Riverside Drive in Florence on Wednesday.
At around 4:30 p.m., firefighters were called to the coffee shop for reports of a fire in the kitchen.
Deputy Fire Chief Shawn Denkiewicz said everyone inside evacuated before Northampton Fire Rescue arrived and there were no injuries. South County EMS also responded.
“The kiln had some fire coming from it,” Denkiewicz said. “We’re going to investigate it just to see what the actual cause was. … We’ll do a fire watch to make sure there’s no rekindling of the fire.”
Denkiewicz said the fire was knocked down in about 15 to 20 minutes.
A witness, Robert Poudrier, said flames were “shooting out” of the chimney on the side of the building. He held his hands apart to illustrate flames about 3 feet high.
A Northampton Police vehicle blocked Riverside Drive at the intersections with Landy Avenue and Maple Street. Denkiewicz said fire crews would remain at Indigo Coffee for a few hours, but the road would not be fully closed for long and was likely to be reduced to one lane.
The business owner declined to speak to a reporter on the scene.
Brian Steele can be reached at bsteele@gazettenet.com.