By William Lamb | NorthJersey.com | September 13, 2006

The Tom Sawyer Diner, an institution on East Ridgewood Avenue in the borough, was destroyed by a three-alarm fire Tuesday night, officials said.

No one was injured in the blaze, which was reported to authorities just after 7 p.m., Paramus Fire Chief Kevin Sheehan said.

The fire appeared to have started in the restaurant's basement, Sheehan said, although a cause was not immediately clear. The borough's Fire Prevention Bureau and Building Department are investigating, he said. It took Paramus firefighters about an hour to bring the fire under control, with firefighters from Washington Township and Fair Lawn assisting.

It was not clear Tuesday night how many customers and employees were at the diner when the fire started, only that everyone managed to escape before the restaurant became engulfed in flames. Part of the restaurant's floor collapsed in the fire, Sheehan said. Paramus Police Chief Fred Corrubia said the damage was extensive.

"It's all gone," Corrubia said. "The windows are blown out. It's cooked."

In 1997, the diner's owner, George Siamboulis, told The Record that he named the restaurant after Tom Sawyer because he is a Mark Twain fan and owns an edition of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" published in 1900. An image of the title character snoozing on the banks of the Mississippi River, his fishing pole by his side, was etched into a large mirror that hung in one of the restaurant's dining rooms.

Siamboulis could not be reached Tuesday night.

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