A massive blaze that broke out around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday severely damaged a building on the 700 block of Broadway in Everett, Massachusetts.
The building houses a popular Brazilian restaurant, Oliveira’s Steak Bar & Grill, as well as apartments above it.
Everyone was able to make it out of the building safely, officials said. About 20 people who lived in the apartments were displaced.
Hours after the fire started, however, flames were still shooting from the roof of the building.
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Broadway was blocked off between Gledhill Avenue down to Ferry Street as firefighters battled the fire. Traffic and buses were re-routed around the active fire scene.
Crews from several area communities responded to help put out the flames. First responders said they expected to be at the scene for a while.
The rear of the building was badly damaged in the fire.
One man who lives nearby said he woke up to the smell of smoke.
"I mean, seeing this is shocking because I said, when I got out of the house I said, 'I'm sure I'm going to see something coming up this way,'" the man said. "Seeing that -- it just like blew my mind."
Owner Wilton Rangel said he's run Oliveira’s Steak Bar & Grill for more than a decade.
"That's my life here. I worked for 13 years to get this and it's burned down," he said.
Watching it fill with water and smoke was hard to see.
"I know insurance is going to pay, but my restaurant is going to stay closed for a while and I don't know when it will reopen," Rangel said.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, fire officials said.
