Fire broke out in Hooper's Crab House during dinner rush

Jun 29, 2023

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OCEAN CITY, Md. – A fire broke out in the kitchen of Hooper’s Crab House in Ocean City that progressed behind the wall, then to the attic of the establishment. Thanks to the Hooper’s staff, Owner Royette Shepherd and the Ocean City Fire Department, no one was injured.

“When we knew we had to evacuate because I mean the flames you could see them coming through the wall and the kitchen never stopped; they were still cooking,” Shepherd said. “It’s like okay guys… you gotta get outta here.”

Ocean City Fire Chief Richie Bowers says firefighters arrived immediately and hooked up the hose line to contain the flames as quickly as possible.

“What we did find was a fire behind an appliance, a kitchen appliance, had traveled vertically up through void spaces into the attic area and into the roof area,” Chief Bowers said. “”It was a very labor intensive fire, we had to remove the interior finish.”

This is not the only collateral damage caused by the fire. Chief Bowers says they had to remove power from the entire restaurant and cut off the natural gas line.

“We actually had to cut a hole in the roof to make sure we could see from the top to the bottom and the bottom to the top to make sure the fire did not continue to burn in the roof area, attic area or the balls.”

Owner of Hooper’s Crab House Royette Shepherd says it took a while for the staff to even realize that a fire started in the restaurant.

“By the time we realized, Uh Oh we are in trouble, we evacuated,” Shepherd said. “The customers were phenomenal, the staff were outrageous, they were so professional and so good.”

“I am so blessed to have the staff that we have.”

Shepherd says the evacuation commenced when the restaurant was in its peak dinner rush with over a forty-five minute wait.

“So you can imagine if we had to evacuate and everybody had to get up and leave, everything was left on all the tables,” Shepherd said. “All and all, yeah it happened.”

Shepherd says the closure of these two days has caused a huge financial blow to the restaurant, but is glad that no lives were lost and no injuries.

“It’s a mountain to climb, but we are so blessed,” Shepherd said. “So blessed that it wasn’t worse and that nobody got hurt and that I have such love and supportive staff surrounding us.”