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Euless Fire Investigators are looking into what caused a fatal fire that killed the owner of a neighborhood Italian restaurant.
“Probably one of the most giving, nice, kind, probably one of the best guys you could ever meet,” said family friend Eric Love.
Charred pieces of the cherished family business are all that remain after the fire that broke out at Napoli’s Italian Café around 3:30 Saturday morning. The owner, Tony Nasufi, was found in the remains of the building.
Former Employee Nick Davis worked at Napoli’s for years. He stopped at the old site of the building to pay his respects.
“I came here immediately, I had to see the building before I knew it was true,” he said. “He built this place up from the ground up with his bare hands. He built the countertops, the tables and everything.”
Davis describes his former boss as dedicated to his family business and says Nasufi was working late at the restaurant varnishing tables.
“Hard working, all about the quality of his food, all about the quality that made it to the customer. He was always here working,” said Davis. “A lot of the regulars here knew him by name, he knew their orders by heart.”
Firefighters say smoke was already billowing from the restaurant when they arrived.
“This is a second alarm fire so we have crews from Euless, Bedford, Grapevine, Fort Worth & Haltom City,” said Euless Fire operations chief Chanc Bennett.
A firefighter was injured when part of the building collapsed, but was treated and released from the hospital. Firefighters found Nasufi already dead inside the building.
“I wanted to come here just because his heart was here, it's sad but it only makes sense he passed here,” said Love.
According to friends, Nasufi’s family immigrated from Macedonia and eventually moved to the United States, where they got into the restaurant business. Nasufi owned the location for about 15 years.
“The food was great but the personality was greater, he was showtime, always in a good mood, you were important, nothing else was,” said Love.
Nasufi’s family did not want to speak on camera but tells Fox 4 the restaurant may need to be demolished and they’re unsure if they will rebuild. Fire investigators are still looking into what caused the fire as well as the exact cause of death.