A fire started by a cigarette discarded into a pile of mulch caused minor damage to a Greenwood restaurant on Sunday evening.
Diners at O’Charley’s Restaurant & Bar on State Road 135 were forced to evacuate after a fire began in the mulch outside the building at 10:55 p.m., White River Fire Chief Jeremy Pell said.
The fire reached the exterior wall and smoke was coming into the building. The restaurant was open at the time, and diners and staff got outside without any injuries, Pell said.
The restaurant re-opened Monday morning following a inspection from the Johnson County Health Department, O’Charley’s kitchen manager Jeremy Hamilton said.
This is the second time that a mulch fire has damaged the restaurant. In 2012, a fire caused by a discarded cigarette also damaged an exterior wall.
“Despite rain, we have days where it is windy and some of the surface materials, such as mulch and grass, dry out quickly and even something as small as a cigarette can cause a grass fire,” Pell said.
