Hot Mama’s Pizza, a local establishment in Duck Creek Village, was destroyed in an early morning fire Wednesday morning, Sept. 9. No one was injured in the incident, but fire officials are calling the building a total loss. The cause of the fire is unknown but is suspected to be electrical in nature. According to locals, the owners have worked very hard to build this business and will now have to completely start over.
Local Fire Chief Casey Tuttle told The Independent that the initial call came in at 5:56 am Wednesday morning.
“Hot Mama’s Pizza was fully engulfed in flames,” Tuttle said. “The fire was also threatening the Falcons Nest, a business located next to Hot Mama’s Pizza.”
Chief Tuttle went on to say that as he arrived on scene, he immediately called dispatch and requested “Mutual Aid.”
‘Mutual Aid’ is an agreement between local fire departments to render aid and their resources to other fire departments when they are in need of more manpower and firefighting equipment. Local fire departments in most states—including Utah—are made up mostly of volunteers. As in this case, when a fire is called in by a 911 caller, volunteer firefighters are paged at home or work and respond to their respective fire stations to pick up their firefighting gear and vehicles, whether it be structure firefighting engines, wild land firefighting brush trucks, or medical emergency vehicles. Depending on the situation—as was the case with the Hot Mama’s Pizza fire in Duck Creek Village—it may be a combination of all resources on hand.
“Firefighters and fire apparatus from Alton Fire, Orderville, Kanab, and Cedar Fire all responded with resources to the scene in Duck Creek Village,” Tuttle said. “An ambulance from Alton was also dispatched in case of any injuries that could occur.”
Another concern with the Hot Mama’s Pizza fire were the burning embers from the structure on fire. As with a campfire, the concern with embers from a large fire in particular is that the still-burning embers can travel as far as a mile from the initial fire depending on the wind conditions. With the fire located in Duck Creek Village, surrounded by dry forest, a wild land fire engine arrived on scene from the Division of Natural Resources to contain any possible brush or wild land fires that could possibly be started in the surrounding area, possibly threatening cabins or other structures in the area.
“All in all, it was a very smooth operation,” Tuttle said.
A GoFundMe account has been set up to help the owners of Hot Mama’s Pizza.
