‘It could have been terrible.’ Picturesque restaurant Namu burns, but avoids the worst

An overnight fire threatened to destroy one of the Triangle’s most picturesque restaurants.

Just after 2 a.m. Tuesday, Durham firefighters responded to a call at the Korean restaurant Namu in Durham, just off Durham-Chapel Hill Boulevard. Smoke was coming from a storage building near the restaurant’s bamboo garden.

Officials from the Durham Fire Department said 38 firefighters responded and that a portion of the building’s roof was removed to put out the blaze. No one was in the burned building at the time of the fire.

Namu co-owner Joe Choi said he first learned of the fire at the restaurant around 4 a.m., when someone call him. Choi said the restaurant and historic campus seemed to have avoided ruin.

“It could have been terrible,” Choi said. “It looks bad, half the building burned and we’re lucky it didn’t spread anywhere else. It could have been a lot worse — we’re surrounded by wood out here.”

Namu is the latest occupant of the Straw Valley complex near New Hope Commons. The campus is a former artist studio and has been a fine dining restaurant and various retail shops. Namu’s coffee shop, restaurant and beer hall have controlled a large portion of the grounds for the past few years, including an outdoor garden surrounded by bamboo.

The building that burned was mostly used for restaurant storage, Choi said, and had been a spa in a former life.

Choi said the fire is still being investigated and that security cameras are being retrieved, but that it is thought to have started in the heating and cooling system. Service at Namu won’t be interrupted, Choi said.

“We’re all very thankful,” Choi said.