McDonald’s sign catches fire in busy fast food area of northwest Atlanta

A popular fast food restaurant on a busy stretch of road is temporarily shut down after a fire sent workers running to safety.

It happened Monday at the McDonald’s off Northside Drive, where there are several other fast food restaurants nearby. Channel 2′s Tom Jones showed you the damage, live on Channel 2 Action News at Noon.

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Firefighters spent a couple of hours dousing flames that were coming from the back of the McDonald’s. That’s where one of the restaurant’s signs caught on fire and had employees quickly getting out of the restaurant.

“An actual off duty fire fighter called it in,” Atlanta Fire Capt. Justin Turner told Jones.

Around the same time, the owner of the restaurant said one of his workers inside realized something was wrong.

“My back drive thru person smelled some smoke. And she alerted everybody and everybody got out safe and sound,” D.J. Mitchell said.

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Firefighters arrived and got the fire out. They believe an electrical issue may have caused it and found minor smoke and water damage inside the restaurant.

The owner says no employees or customers were ever in danger.

“There weren’t flames inside the restaurant. Obviously it was on the outside,” Mitchell said.

The owner says his workers are doing OK and he is focused on getting their work lives back to normal. He did not have a timetable for when the restaurant will re-open.

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