Cooper's Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que Had a Small Fire in Austin

Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que’s downtown Austin location suffered a minor fire on Sunday morning at 6:30 a.m. No one was injured and the restaurant still opened for regular service that day.

The Austin Fire Department tweeted that there was a fire in the restaurant’s cooking ventilation system and Cooper's attributed it to a smoke scrubber. The sprinklers put out the flames. The fire department dealt with smoke removal from the restaurant. There was $10,000 worth of damages, AFD estimated on Facebook.

This is the second Austin barbecue restaurant that caught on fire recently. The lauded Franklin Barbecue is still temporarily closed from its blaze in late August when an ember flew off the firepit in late August. Pitmaster and owner Aaron Franklin is in the middle of rebuilding the pit room, and he plans on reopening in some shape or form by early October.

The Austin Fire Department joked that Chick-fil-A’s cow mascot is a suspect for both fires.

• Austin Fire Department [Twitter]
• Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que [Facebook]
• Austin Fire Department [Facebook]
• All Coverage of Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que [EATX]