The fire broke out around 2:45am at the Los Piño's Restaurant on FM 2920 near Alma. A passerby called 911 after seeing flames shooting from the roof. Firefighters arrived to find lots of smoke and flames on the roof.
"Once we got started with extinguishment, we did knock it down fairly quickly at the front part of the building, however the fire was in the attic space at the rear of the building and that caused us some problems with the metal roof, which is why we ended up calling up a second-alarm," said Randy Parr with the Tomball Fire Department. "We wanted to make sure we had enough resources available."
Firefighters were able to knock the blaze before it reached the fire walls. Seven other businesses at the strip center were not damaged by the flames.
As for the restaurant, the roof is a total loss but the inside has only smoke and water damage.
The fire chief says right now it doesn't appear to be suspicious, but he says the fire marshal is out there investigating.
