JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A thriving business in San Marco is now filled with ashes after someone set it on fire.
“I can’t even imagine another human being would do this,” said Jackie Grzebin, owner of the Flame Broiler.
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The second you walk inside the Flame Broiler in San Marco you can still smell the smoke from the fire, even though it happened last Saturday.
Police believe the suspect broke in through the back window to steal money from the cash register, then intentionally set fire to the restaurant, according to the police report.
“They suspect they saw themselves on video,” Grzebin said in an exclusive interview “and then actually lit the video screen on fire, which melted every single piece of electronic equipment that we had.”
The fire started near the paper products and then spread throughout the entire kitchen and into the air conditioning system.
“The shelf that started on fire was mainly filled with these bag in the box sodas, and they actually think what put the fire out is all of them exploding,” Grzebin said.
But this isn’t the first time she has to rebuild her business. Hurricane Irma also took a toll, and flooded the place with 36 inches of water.
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This type of rebuild obviously hurts a little more.
“Where we fall short though is we have nine people out of jobs.” She said. “Aside from that this is a malicious act of somebody just trying to break in to get money that’s the most disheartening part, but then the second it’s just the disregard for other human beings.”
Thankfully, the business has insurance, but Grzebin is waiting for approval to rebuild the $150,000 worth of damage.
JSO said this is still an active investigation but there are currently no leads. We put in a request with JSO for surveillance video that may have been salvaged during that fire.
About 1 week ago, this is what Jackie Grzebin walked into at her restaurant, Flame Broilers, in San Marco. JFRD and JSO determined it was arson, but have no leads on who did it. Jackie is now fixing up $150,000 worth of damage. More at 5:30 @ActionNewsJax pic.twitter.com/FJVT5G8A5a
— Meghan Moriarty (@MeghanANjax) October 4, 2019
Cox Media Group
