A fire tore through a Coral Gables restaurant and an adjacent art gallery Thursday morning, destroying both establishments and about $1.5 million worth of Art Deco furniture and paintings, fire officials and tenants said.
There were no major injuries in the blaze, which began just after midnight at the Moroccan Nights restaurant at 1630 Ponce de Leon Blvd., although a resident in a nearby apartment building was briefly hospitalized for smoke inhalation, said Lt. Charlie Davis, spokesman for the Coral Gables Fire Department.
Davis said that the cause of the fire had not been determined, but that it had originated ''at the rear of the restaurant.'' Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were investigating at the scene Thursday.
''You are talking about a multimillion-dollar fire. I would not say there is a suspicion of arson, but this is our procedure,'' Davis said. ``Our main focus is to determine the origin and cause of the fire.''
The fire also destroyed nearly all of the artwork and furniture at the Modernism Gallery at 1622 Ponce de Leon Blvd. next door, including pieces of historical importance, according to gallery owner Ric Emmett, 62.
''It burnt it all down. All the Art Deco works were lost,'' said Emmett, who spent much of Thursday poking through the ruins of his gallery to see what could be salvaged. Emmett said he opened his gallery 25 years ago and has been at the same location for the past 15 years.
Among the burned or water-damaged pieces was a three-piece desk set by designer Maurice Dufrene that was exhibited at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts D
