Staff forced to flee as masked men torch Scarborough restaurant

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Workers at an Indian restaurant in Scarborough are lucky to be alive after masked men broke in and torched the place early Friday.

Omkar Belwate, a head chef and executive at Sha’az Indian Cuisine in White Shield Plaza at Kennedy Rd. and Lawrence Ave. E., spoke to a Global News cameraman and explained that three masked men smashed their way inside through the glass front entrance and proceeded to pour a flammable substance in the dining room area before setting it ablaze shortly before 3 a.m.

Belwate, who was not at the restaurant when the terrifying ordeal unfolded, spoke on behalf of his four staff members who were inside cleaning up at the time and told him what happened.

“Two were working and two were having dinner,” Belwate said, recounting the details that were shared with him. “The front door was locked and they broke the glass and came in.”

“They broke the glass and came in with gasoline cans, or something like that, and poured the gasoline,” he added.

The employees were cleaning up in the rear of the restaurant and having an early morning meal when Belwate said a female worker ventured out into the front dining room area – a far distance from the kitchen in the back – and saw the masked men.

“It was very frightening for the staff,” said Belwate. “Nothing is left of the restaurant.”

Outside of the restaurant, a huge metal overhang lay crumpled in the parking lot on Friday. The inside of the eatery was blackened and the storefront sign was scorched and melted off.

A couple of coffee mugs could be seen on a table inside through the front window and they looked like they hadn’t been touched.

Belwate figured the physical damage was maybe around $1 million, but it’s the “emotional damage” to the owners, employees and patrons.

The staff, who Belwate said are mainly family members, luckily escaped through a rear exit to an awaiting dark vehicle and called 911 to alert emergency services of what was later deemed a two-alarm fire.

The White Shield Banquet Hall, just to the east of the restaurant, sustained undisclosed damage along with several other nearby businesses, including an Ardene fashion shop to the west and a perfume store with most of its contents covered in soot.

In the parking lot, out front of the restaurant, sat a pair of burnt chairs and what appeared to be a charred loveseat or couch.

A man in the parking lot, who would not give his name, said several second-floor businesses – including a dental office – were uninhabitable because smoke had migrated upward and the building had to be vented for health concerns.

Belwate explained that it was the second break-in at the restaurant in eight months where the suspects stole things.

Toronto Police and Toronto Fire investigators were on scene for the day, but none would not comment on what occurred or what they had found Friday morning.

On Wednesday, three men with gas cans burst into a business on Pape Ave. south of Mortimer Ave., around 5 a.m. and set it ablaze.

Three residents who live in second-floor apartments within the East York business complex were treated for smoke inhalation at hospital.

No injuries were reported from the arson in Scarborough.

Anyone with information regarding this fire is urged to call police at 416-808-4100 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

jboland@postmedia.com