MONMOUTH – Leone’s, a restaurant popular among locals, was gutted by a fire Sunday morning.

The owner of the restaurant discovered the blaze at 5:20 a.m. while he was preparing to open for the daily breakfast crowd. He called 911 and reported smoke coming from the back of the building, said Monmouth Fire Chief Andre Plourde Sunday night.

Monmouth firefighters, aided by Wales, Leeds, Greene and Winthrop fire departments, had the blaze under control by 9 a.m. There was never any danger of the fire spreading to surrounding buildings, Plourde said.

He reported that a Monmouth firefighter sustained a minor injury while battling the blaze. The firefighter was treated at the scene for a sprained ankle.

The state fire marshal was called to the scene and, according to Plourde, determined old wiring in the rear portion of the building to be the cause of the fire.

“We know the building has been around since the 1800s,” explained Plourde. “There was a huge fire in this area in the 1880s and we have pictures of the building standing among the destruction.”

The building, located at 765 Main St., was modified in the late 1960s when it became Leone’s.

“We believe it was wiring done in that modification that faulted and started the fire,” Plourde said.

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