LONGWOOD, Fla. – Officials with the Longwood Fire Department, as well as several other agencies in Seminole County, worked to put out a two-alarm fire at a building off State Road 434 on Friday afternoon.
Ben Lu said he bought the building in 2016 to open a larger location for his restaurant, Bayridge Sushi.
On Friday afternoon, Lu said, his wife called to tell him the 11,000-square-foot building was on fire.
"She (was) crying on the phone, like, 'Our new building is on fire,'" Lu said. "She's so sad."
Sky 6 caught a view from the air of the massive flames overcoming the entire structure.
"(It's) sad," Lu said. "I don't know how to express for this, but it's very sad. We've been working for this building one and a half year."
The Longwood Fire Department received help from the Seminole County Fire Department and Lake Mary crews.
Lu said construction workers were welding at the time the fire broke out. He also gave News 6 design renderings of what the inside of the upscale restaurant was supposed to look like.
"We have a lot of regular customers here and then they know we are moving and now we are going to be disappointing them," Lu said.
Fire officials have not given an exact cause of the fire.