UPDATE: Firefighters were seen coming in and out of Raven Lounge in order to access the building next door – an apartment complex that formerly housed two Japanese restaurants – where the fire actually occurred, according to Grub Street Philadelphia. Raven Lounge was not damaged and is open for business.
A blaze that tore through a restaurant and apartment building on the 1700 block of Sansom Street and choked Center City with a thick cloud of smoke Monday evening has been wrestled under control, a spokeswoman from the Philadelphia Fire Department said around 7:30 p.m.
Dozens of police officers and firefighters responded with hoses and ladders shortly before 6 p.m., when flames could be seen shooting from the rear of popular Rittenhouse Square nightspot Raven Lounge.
No one was injured and it is too soon to determine what sparked the fire or the extent of its damage, the department said.
Metro’s photo editor Rikard Larma was on the scene to catch the incident’s immediate aftermath.
