Firefighters from three departments battled a blaze at a Burnsville Mexican restaurant Friday morning.

Firefighters from Apple Valley, Eagan and Burnsville were dispatched to El Loro Mexican Restaurant off Hwy. 13 and Cliff Road around 7:30 a.m., said Burnsville Fire Chief B.J. Jungmann.

It took firefighters about 15 minutes to get the fire under control, he said. The fire was out by 8:30.

Nobody was in the restaurant when the fire started, Jungmann said.

The fire appeared to start in the kitchen. Jungmann said nothing was suspicious about the fire, but the Burnsville fire department is still investigating how it started.

Police were originally dispatched to the restaurant for a burglar alarm and called the fire department when they arrived, Jungmann said. Though the restaurant has smoke alarms, it doesn't have a sprinkler system or a system to alert anyone to a fire when the restaurant is empty, he said.

Though there was a lot of smoke damage and some fire damage in the kitchen, Jungman said, the building isn't destroyed.

"If you drove by right now you wouldn't necessarily be able to tell that there was a fire," he said.

El Loro has several locations in the Twin Cities, including Lakeville, Bloomington and Savage.

• Anne Millerbernd is a University of Minnesota student on assignment for the Star Tribune.

Anne Millerbernd • 651-308-7126