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# Hotel restaurant will remain closed for week after blaze
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/hotel-restaurant-will-remain-closed-for-week-after-blaze/
- Published: 2005-09-26T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T07:49:17.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Business, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Hotel restaurant will remain closed for week after blaze*

*By Daily Press staff*

SHUTTERS ON THE BEACH — A fire broke out in a kitchen ventilation system on Saturday, forcing some guests to evacuate the hotel for a short period of time. No one was injured.

The fire broke out shortly before noon at Pedals, the beachfront restaurant at Shutters on the Beach.

A total of 24 firefighters were on the scene, successfully extinguishing the blaze from the hotel’s roof.

Santa Monica Fire Department Capt. Dale Hallock said damage was estimated at about $250,000 and the cause is still being investigated.

Kitchen workers called 9-1-1 after they heard a sound similar to that of a volcano erupting. Apparently, the fire traveled through the kitchen duct to the roof, making it difficult to douse, Hallock said. Firefighters were on the scene until about 6 p.m.

Business went on as usual at the hotel, except for the closure of Pedals, said Tim Dubois, general manager of Casa Del Mar and Shutters on the Beach.

“We were serving cocktails in the bar area by 4 p.m.,” he said, adding the hotel’s other restaurant, 1 Pico, remained open. “We hope to be back up and running (Pedals) within a week.”

A wedding planned for Saturday afternoon went on as planned, as staff used the neighboring hotel, Casa Del Mar, Dubois said.

“It helps to have another hotel,” he said. A photographer from France said he was walking by when he noticed smoke on the roof and an old man standing at a second-story window, holding his luggage, unsure if he should jump.

The Frenchman said someone stepped from behind the old man and escorted him outside the hotel.

One woman, who said she was a visitor from New York, was asleep at the pool when two people woke her to tell her she needed to leave because of the fire.

“Not the relaxing day at the pool I was hoping for,” she said.

About 30 employees stood beachside waiting to return to work. Meanwhile, bikers passed on the sidewalk, many oblivious to the hotel’s commotion.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/092605-02_01.jpg)

Firefighters on Saturday battle to control a kitchen fire that erupted at Pedals, the beachfront restaurant at Shutters on the Beach. (Photo: Fabian Lewkowicz/Daily Press)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/092605-02_02.jpg)

to the Daily Press A kitchen ventilation fire at Pedals restaurant on Saturday prompted the evacuation of some Shutters hotel guests. (Photo: Michael Meade/Special)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/092605-02_03.jpg)

to the Daily Press A kitchen ventilation fire at Pedals restaurant on Saturday prompted the evacuation of some Shutters hotel guests. (Photo: Michael Meade/Special)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 26, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/092605.pdf?ref=smdp.com)