Fire destroys Thorton’s, El Pelon, Greek Isle, and evacuates part of the West Fens

(image of the last major fire at El Pelon from Flickr user (and friend) Colin)

Very sad news this morning for residents of the West Fenway area. A 4-alarm fire started in Thorton’s Fenway Grille and spread through the entire block of restaurants early this morning. It’s unclear at this time the extent of the damage, but it looks pretty bad.

I used to live cater corner from the row of restaurants in 2005-06. We were just discussing our favorite Boston burrito joints over on Ryan’s and Colin’s blogs last night, where I attempted to defend El Pelon. The place has been my favorite cheap eats in the city for over five years now. El Pelon has twice been destroyed by fire (which started and was contained in their own space), only to recover a few months later. Given the devestation this time around, I somehow doubt this time they can make it back. My thoughts go out to those businesses and people who were hurt by this.

Here’s the Globe with more.

If you, like me, need a bit of cheering up after this bad news, may I suggest you check out the latest epic post Grey Album, Jay-Z-based mashup, Jaydiohead (which is exactly what it sounds like).

Update: This breaks my heart, from Flickr user clock.bound:

I should probably mention that the first time I came back from DC to visit, this was the very first place I went in Boston. My friends and I had a great rapport with the staff, most of whom had been serving us for years – well before we moved into the neighborhood. My thoughts go out to the staff there – I hope they can find work in light of this. Thanks, Universal Hub, for passing along these photos.