WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Dave Magda woke up to bad news. His Wilkes-Barre pizza shop was on fire.
"I don't know what to do. It's 5 in the morning. I don't if I board it up or what. I don't know."
He owns Magda's Pizza and Deli on Gardner Avenue.
Another local pizza shop owner happens to live two doors down, saw the flames around 3:30 a.m., and got in touch with Magda through a mutual friend.
That's when Magda contacted his friend in the fire department.
"Woke him up out of bed, and I said, 'Is it on fire?' Then he checked, and he said, 'Yeah, it is.' Then he threw on, he came over. He's actually fighting the fire right now."
It took hours to get the flames under control.
Joe Marinko lives across the street. The smell of smoke woke him up.
"Around 3 o'clock. And then when I came out, I noticed smoke, and then all of a sudden, flames shot out of the upstairs area."
The biggest problem was water; there wasn't enough of it. The fire hydrant on this block wasn't working.
The Wilkes-Barre Fire Department called in extra help from neighboring Plains Township.
No one was hurt. Someone lives in the apartment upstairs, but Magda says the tenant was working an overnight shift when the fire broke out.
Six people in the house next door had to be evacuated.
Magda says he just got a big delivery in for the busy Friday night pizza crowd, about $5,000 worth of food.
"If not more," Magda said.
He's been in business since 1995 but only at this location for the last eight years.
"Oh, I totally remodeled the whole thing. Repainted it, new sidewalks, everything, all new equipment. There's a lot of money in there."
The fire chief says it's too early to figure out what caused this. It's under investigation.
As for Magda and his pizza shop, he's not sure what comes next.
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