restaurant yesterday afternoon.

Smoke poured from Roosters fast food restaurant, sending lines of smoke into the air and gassing restaurant personnel.

Some desperately searched for absent fire extinguishers while others ran.

Fortunately, the fire was relatively small and only required six firefighters and one fire engine.

But the smoke persistently filled the place, choking anyone without a respirator.

Antoine, a barber from The New Universal Barber Shop across the road, said he saw lots of light when he went over to investigate.

"I only went in there to help him out.'' he said, trying to help out the owner of Roosters.

But soon the fire was out of control and Antoine was looking for a fire extinguisher.

"There was nothing.'' he said.

He stayed in the store for a moment later, before deciding on the best course of action.

"Call the fire department -- this is not my job.'' Within seconds the smoke was too thick to breath, sending everyone who was still in the store running.

"It was kind of funny -- it was really comical if you saw what I saw.'' Antoine said.

Lieutenant Morris White of the Fire Service said the blaze was not serious but did cause a lot of smoke.

Fire fighters drained five extinguishers during the incident and remained on site to make sure the fire did not flame up.

"If you don't cool down the temperature of the grease, it could fire up.'' said Lieutenant White.