Popular Jacksonville seafood restaurant, sandwich shop badly damaged in fire

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Junior’s Seafood Restaurant and Grill and Junior’s Famous Sandwiches, a popular north Jacksonville staple, was badly damaged after an early morning fire on Thursday.

Thankfully, no one was hurt.

Seham Kassees-Salazar was at work when she learned her brother and son’s business was on fire.

“It’s just devastating to see this,” Kassees-Salazar said.

Kassees-Salazar said Junior’s Seafood Restaurant and Sandwich Shop is a north Jacksonville staple on North Main Street.

She said business has been around for 45 years.

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“So this is what we see and it’s just heartbreaking because everybody comes here. Everybody loves it,” Kassees-Salazar said.

The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department said the fire broke out just after 7 a.m.

Dozens of crews were called out to put out the flames and at one point nearly 65 firefighters were on scene.

A spokesperson for the fire department said it appears the fire may have started in the attic while nobody was inside.

Kassees-Salazar told Action News Jax she doesn’t know if her family will be able to salvage the restaurant.

Right now, she’s just asking for support from the community.

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“A lot of prayers would be nice. A lot, a lot of prayers,” Kassees-Salazar said.

The state fire marshal has been called out to investigate the cause of this fire.

We did reach out to see if we can get an update and we’re still waiting to hear back.

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