GEORGINA ROBINSON – Totally destroyed … Cafe Otto. Photo: Nick Moir

A Sydney restaurateur says he is devastated by the second major fire in just over a year to tear through one of his businesses.

Neil Mirani’s Glebe restaurant, Cafe Otto, was completely gutted yesterday, just 13 months after a kitchen fire at his Paddington cafe caused $900,000 in damage.

“We don’t believe it,” Mr Mirani said.

“I feel like I’m destroyed as well because I’m 21 years [in Glebe].

Yesterday’s blaze broke out before 3am, police believe, and took 20 firefighters more than two hours to extinguish.

The restaurant’s roof collapsed inwards as the flames tore through the dining room’s timber interior.

It was an even more vicious replay of events from December 2008, when an exhaust motor or shorted wires were believed to have sparked a major fire in Mr Mirani’s Paddington eatery, Mickey’s Cafe.

“That took about six or seven months to rebuild and we finally got it up and running,” he said.

“It destroyed the kitchen but there was a lot of smoke and water damage as well.”

The final repair bill came to about $900,000, said Mr Mirani, whose restaurants were both insured.

Police said they would not be able to pinpoint the cause of yesterday’s fire until heavy lifting equipment was available to lift off the collapsed roof

“[Fire investigators] want to look under the roof first before they give their final suspicious or non-suspicious ruling,” Leichhardt police duty officer, Inspector Sean Daley, said.

Inspector Daley said police were aware of the earlier fire but did not believe there was any link to yesterday’s incident.

Mr Mirani said he did not know how the fire started but police told him it appeared to have smouldered for quite some time before flaring up.

“My neighbour called me at 3.50am and he said ‘Get over here; your place is on fire’ and I raced over,” he said.

The restaurant was closed from 11pm on Tuesday. Mr Mirani left earlier, about 9.30pm, he said.

“My supervisor said she went to do a double check [there was nothing left on] and she said no,” Mr Mirani said.

“I asked all the boys in the kitchen … it was a bit of a quiet night. They said: ‘We cleaned things extra [well] and made sure everything was bright.’”

Mr Mirani said he would probably rebuild.

“I don’t know what else to do after 21 years,” he said.

“It’s funny going to work six or seven days a week and all of a sudden it’s not there.”