Ravenna pizzaria owner hoping to reopen in early August after smoky fire forced shutdown

Siciliano's Pizzaria in Ravenna has been closed for several weeks following a July 3 fire, but owner Tom Siciliano says it could have been a lot worse.

For one thing, the fire did not spread beyond its point of origin in the middle of the building, away from the ovens.

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"If [the fire] had gotten through the drop ceiling, it more than likely would cut into the trusses and would have brought the whole building down," said Siciliano. "So basically we're very fortunate it was a small fire, but a smoky one."

In the immediate aftermath of the fire, Siciliano's posted on its Facebook page that it was expected the nearly 40-year-old pizzaria at 974 E Main St. would reopen in "two weeks or less." But Siciliano said smoke from oil stored near the fire spread throughout the building and gave Cuyahoga Falls contractor Belfor Property Restoration a bigger job than previously believed.

"They had to completely gut the inside and rebuild everything," he said, adding that equipment that could be salvaged was sent to a Columbus company for cleaning.

But the building's exhaust system was operating at the time, lessening the damage.

"Fortunately it was able to exhaust a lot of the smoke or it would have been worse," said Siciliano.

Siciliano said he is now pushing to reopen by Aug. 3, when Mongoose Motors will sponsor its annual Cruise-In Car Show from 3 to 10 p.m., during which Main Street will be closed.

"I'm also gonna do an open house and allow people to come in and look at my new design, my new renovated store," he said. "Which will be kind of cool, I think, that people that have never been back in my store, to let them look and see what we do."

Siciliano said he was first alerted that something was going on at 4:16 a.m. on July 3. He and Ravenna Interim Fire Chief Mark Chapple said it was a burglar alarm that first signaled something was wrong.

"The motion detector thought somebody broke into the building," said Chapple. "So our police department was the first on scene and they saw smoke coming from the door and the windows darkened. And so they called and said, 'Hey, I think the building's on fire.'"

Ravenna and Ravenna Township firefighters responded and quickly extinguished the fire. Chapple said firefighters were on scene for about 90 minutes and there were no injuries. The fire department believes the fire may have been electrical, Chapple said, especially since an electric junction box was in the vicinity. The investigation has since been turned over to Siciliano's insurance company.

"We didn't feel like there's anything that was malicious or anything of that nature," said Chapple.

Siciliano said an insurance investigator also suggested the fire may have been electrical in nature, but mentioned the possibility it could have been due to "spontaneous combustion" of some towels used for cleaning, something Siciliano is skeptical of.

"But it could be." he said. "I don't know. I'm not very smart. I'm a cook. I don't know. But they said it may be undetermined. I think it's an electrical fire."

Siciliano started his pizzaria across the street on June 6, 1983. It was not there long, opening in its current location on May 1, 1985.

"This used to be a bank building, so it's a very, very well-built building," said Siciliano. "It's all cement block inside, there's no drywall in the building...the building itself sustained no damage at all, other than the smoke damage inside."

Siciliano runs the pizzaria with his wife, Cindy, and son, Tommy. There are more than 20 employees, mostly part-timers, many of them high school students.

"The fortunate part is the insurance company is going to pay the employees as we're closed," he said.

The worst blow Siciliano said he suffered in July was not the fire and smoke damage, but the loss of his mother, Edna Mae Siciliano, a longtime Rootstown resident. She died on July 18 and was a part of Siciliano's Pizzaria's history.

"My mom actually helped me when we started," said Siciliano. "My mom worked here years ago. She was 88 years old, so I mean when I started 39 years ago, my mom and my mother-in-law both helped me."

As the renovation winds down and Siciliano's Pizzaria prepares to reopen, Siciliano said he hopes his patrons return.

"I want to say thanks to all the people that have either called or stopped by or texted or wished on Facebook or whatever," he said. "I really appreciate it. I hope they don't forget us because my biggest concern now is people are very, they go by habits and, you know, we've had people that for 39 years are coming every week on a certain day of the week or they come in on a regular basis...I just hope that they remember us when we get reopened. I appreciate them coming back."

Reporter Jeff Saunders can be reached at jsaunders@recordpub.com.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Ravenna pizzaria owner hoping to reopen a month after fire