EXTRA News Story 2: FIRE

Two girls were hospitalized yesterday after a fire broke out in Pedro’s Mexican Restaurant around 2 p.m.

Their father Miguel Sanchez, restaurant owner Pedro Sanchez’s brother, was treated at the scene after a grease fire spread in the restaurant, located on the bottom floor of an apartment building on the corner of 21st Street and Washington Boulevard, Deputy Fire Chief Greg Chamberlain said.

Pedro Sanchez was in the kitchen at the time of the fire, while Miguel Sanchez and daughters Maria Del Mar, 4, and Mercedes, 2, were in the apartment above the restaurant.

Friends of Pedro told him they would help him rebuild the restaurant.

Rachel Calhoun, owner of the apartment building, would not comment on how she is going to handle the rest of the damage to the building.Pedro Sanchez claimed he had legal citizenship in the United States. Miguel Sanchez is waiting on his legal work papers.

The girls were transported to McKay-Dee hospital.