Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


A commercial kitchen fire broke out Wednesday afternoon at Cello Italian Restaurant in downtown Howell.

The Howell Area Fire Authority was dispatched to a smoke investigation/possible structure fire in the 200 block of East Grand River. That’s near Michigan Avenue and traffic was impacted, with delays resulting due to a portion of Grand River being blocked off with assistance from Howell Police while authorities responded on scene.

Fire Chief Andy Box told WHMI upon arrival, there were light smoke conditions visible from inside the structure and on top of the roof, and investigation determined there was a commercial kitchen fire in the establishment. He said fire and damage were confined to the kitchen area, with damage pegged at approximately $5,000 in content, and there were fortunately no injuries. The fire was extinguished by employees with multiple fire extinguishers.

Box said Cello was the sole occupancy of the building, which had been preparing food to be ready to be served later in the evening.

Box said “further Investigation determined the fire suppression hood systems were out of service and have been tagged as such since June of this year, which is concerning from the standpoint you have workers in this kitchen conducting business preparing food and they don’t have an active fire suppression hood systems working for them or the occupants of the building itself”.

The Livingston County Health Department was notified and was on scene, along with Consumers Energy as gas was shut off the entire building. The City Building Department was also notified.

Box said “they are going to be shut down for at least a week and can’t re-open until they get the fire suppression and ventilation system code-compliant”. He further stressed the importance of commercial kitchen operations to follow through with their license fire suppression contractors, and to make sure all equipment is operational and safe not only for employees but their patrons as well.

More information is available on the Fire Department’s Facebook page. That link is provided.

WHMI reached out to Cello for comment – which was not received as of an 11pm deadline.

Photos: WHMI & Howell Area Fire Authority.