Wichita restaurant destroyed in two-alarm fire

Petra Mediterranean Restaurant was destroyed in a two-alarm fire that happened overnight Wednesday.

The Wichita Fire Department was called at about 2 a.m. to the 6100 block of East 21st Street where crews found fire coming through the roof in the area of the HVAC units.

Charred contents, wood and glass spilled out of the business where the front doors once were. A hole in the roof could be seen above the restaurant’s sign.

Fire investigators were on scene and began entering the business at around 8 a.m. The cause was not immediately known Wednesday morning.

Petra opened in April at 6140 E. 21st St. by Rania Taha and Bashar Mahanweh after their former restaurant, Byblos, caught fire in March.

The Byblos fire, at 3088 W. 13th St., also began overnight. It originated in the kitchen.

Taha and Mahanweh took over Byblos last September when they purchased it from Ilham Saad, who had owned the restaurant since opening it in 1989.

The couple was in the midst of opening Petra when the Byblos fire occurred.

This story was originally published November 1, 2017 at 6:32 AM with the headline "Wichita restaurant destroyed in two-alarm fire."