Mark Wahlberg's Las Vegas Restaurant Catches Fire Right Before Its Grand Opening
A fire broke out at Mark Wahlberg's Las Vegas restaurant Flecha Cantina Wednesday night, just a day before its official ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The Clark County Fire Department responded to a report of a fire at Flecha Cantina, located inside the Town Square shopping center on Las Vegas Boulevard near Sunset Road, at around 5:32 p.m. Wednesday. The fire began on the patio, and did not spread inside before sprinklers activated.
The fire began when "a defective fire pit caught fire on the bottom of it," a restaurant spokesperson told People. "No damage at all in the interior restaurant. The only damage was the fire pit and the chair next to it. Thankfully no one was injured."
A video of the blaze was shared by Las Vegas Locally on X. The entire patio was bathed in orange light from flames that appeared to reach all the way up to the ceiling overhead.
But the fire was not as bad as it appeared in the video due to "reflective" windows, Wahlburgers CEO Randy Sharpe told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Wahlburgers is the restaurant group founded by Wahlberg and his brothers Donnie Wahlberg and chef Paul Wahlberg.
"The whole front of the building has reflective windows, so it made it look pretty spectacular, but not in a good way. The fire department came out quickly; they suppressed it. It was out in 20 minutes. It was very minor. Fortunately, it wasn't worse," Sharpe told the outlet.
Although people were evacuated, the restaurant was reportedly back in business about an hour later.
The restaurant planned to go forward with its official grand opening and ribbon cutting on Thursday, just weeks after it opened in September. It is the second Flecha Cantina location, following the opening of a Huntington Beach, Calif., location on June 8.
-- With reporting by TMX
