Diners in The Junction Eating Place, 816 W. Lincoln Hwy., got a scare Monday night when a fire broke out in the restaurant, filling the building with smoke and forcing its evacuation.

Employees said the fire started in the kitchen area. “It started on the broiler and we tried to put it out, but it got pulled up through the fans,” said Rick Kish, a cook at the restaurant. The fans, which are used to draw cooking smoke out of the building, pulled the flames up to the roof quickly and the fire spread.

Karen Stampley, who was at the restaurant with friends, said she saw kitchen workers trying to extinguish the fire. “But within five minutes the whole back kitchen was in flames. The next thing we heard was ‘call the fire department,'” she said. Evonda Rucker said when she left the building with Stampley she looked back and saw flames coming from the ceiling.

Tom Tsiagalis, part-owner of The Junction, said the restaurant was almost full when the fire started. Everyone was able to get out of the building without a hitch and no one was injured.

The fire did not spread from the kitchen area or the roof to other areas of the building. When the fire department arrived, flames were reaching six to seven feet from the roof, but within minutes firefighters working both inside the building and on the roof were able to extinguish the fire.

The fire department today is expected to release the damage estimates and the results of an investigation on what caused the fire.