Chinta Cafe blaze: Fire breaks out at popular North Perth cafe, emergency services investigate

Dozens of firefighters have descended on a suburban street in North Perth after a fire broke out at a popular family-owned cafe.

Chinta owner Graham Smith said the plume of smoke coming from the top floor of his beloved cafe of more than a decade was so thick he “couldn’t see across the road at one stage”.

“We were just closing up and one of the girls said ‘aw there’s a lot of smoke up here and you could barely see’, so I went to have a look and when I got up there there was smoke coming from the shutters,” he told The Sunday Times.

“It was filling up really fast.”

Mr Smith called triple-0 just after 4pm, with at least fire crews turning out to the emergency.

Firefighters on the scene have since blocked off Hardy Street at Scarborough Beach Road as they made the area safe and isolated the solar power and gas.

A Department of Fire and Emergency Services spokesperson said crews were in the process of finding the source of the ignition.

Witnesses who’d gathered outside the Perth icon to watch firefighters at work said they had seen a large amount of smoke coming through a vent on the side of the building.

“It was filling up inside the building,” Mr Smith said, adding that there hadn’t been any visible flames - only smoke.

“It was an amazing response by DFES,” he said, embracing his wife and cafe co-owner Robyn Smith, who appeared visibly upset.

“She’s in a bit of shock. We don’t know the damage yet or what’s caused it.

“Luckily no one was hurt.”

In addition to Mr and Mrs Smith there were three staff members inside the cafe at the time of the incident.

DFES Incident Controller Ken Hall said the blaze had been relatively small and limited to the mezzanine roof space.

“It’s unknown what caused it so far,” he said. “Very limited damage. Some damage from us unfortunately trying to get inside.”

“The cause of the fire is not being treated as suspicious.