Lieutenant Robert Matthews from Norfolk (VA) Ladder 9 sent in these photos (taken by Kyle Davis) of a familiar site, in an unfamiliar place. We have shown shelves hiding a room in a residential structure numerous times on the site, but we have never shown one in a commercial structure before. The one shown here was found during a pre-plan of a local restaurant. The shelving unit covers the entrance to an additional service area of the kitchen. As you can see from the photo, when the shelf-door is in the closed position, there is no way of knowing what is behind it. Fortunately in this case there is an exterior door, so this room would certainly be discovered from the outside.
1. That kitchen is disgusting
2. I’m guessing that the shelving unit is left open during normal operations
3. I’m going to guess that this kitchen is in a basement, with a sub-basement.
Mafia style.
We had a Capt that could not be found around the station….until a bell came in and he would magically appear. hhmmm
The shelf has no handle and the restaurant is a single story wood frame 1940’s era construction on a crawl space. The kitchen is directly in the rear, no basement or sub just set down a bit, was very interesting for us to find this as we did note it appeared larger from the exterior. imagine in a search find the door or you don’t…..
Robert, thanks for the followup. Can we get exterior pics?
Maybe I am way to young to understand… But what is the idea behind a room like this? I assume their is a historical reason for this?
In the back room was there any major appliance or just storage?
There are several reasons for these types of rooms GFD 24; from history we have two abandoned building that are historic landmarks from the underground railroad days, the basement is a nightmare we get lost in it in daylight with a flashlight. Of Corse the other reasons can be much less historic such as old speakeasies, prohibition booz mills, mafia hideouts, safe rooms on and on. A walk through inspection give away (not a shot in hell under fire conditions) are the two conduits and the water running over the top right of the door through the wall. Good catch yet another example of how important pre planning is.
BrickCity- Thank you sir. I figured it may have something to do with mafia/ prohibition but before I assumed I thought I would throw it out there. I did see the conduits and water going into the room which is a dead give away to anyone that is half paying attention during an inspection, but your also right about smoke/ fire conditions.
At least they have an extinguisher in there.
Fellas, the small entrance was there for an entrance to the “other” kitchen, I asked the owner about the history and he stated the old restaurant had another kitchen back inthe day, I believe the this because the current kitchen was smaller than the galley in the firehouse. As you went down into the back room directly to the right was another step down almost like a cellar, yet it led to a semi below grade freezer and the B side of the building was the oldest part with numerous areas of old staorage and a good lesson inthe building construction. This is where all of the utilities were kept. I appreciate the feedback and will follow up shortly.
Lt Robert M
Copy that Brick. Pre plan, Pre plan. Nice pick up….