ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – It’s not the call anyone wants to wake up to, but that’s exactly what happened to the owner of the High Noon Restaurant and Saloon on Tuesday, when a fire was started outside by their storage shed and electrical boxes.

Firefighters quickly put the fire out before it could spread to other parts of the building. The restaurant is closed for now, but hopefully not for long.

Owner Carla Villa says their security cameras saw someone messing with their electrical boxes minutes before this part of the building caught on fire.

“So we had a small enclosure, a Latia enclosure, here to keep our electrical safe from tampering. We also had our CO2 tank out here so a small enclosure and so this is where the fire started,” said Villa.

Now those electrical boxes are on the ground, and scorch marks cover the back wall of High Noon. Folks who are normally cooks or servers are putting on construction gloves as they work on repairing the damage. 

“It did destroy this one wall, but that was the only place. It was contained here it didn’t get into the kitchen at all, it didn’t get into the rest of the restaurant,” said Villa.  

Inside the restaurant, you would never guess the fire department was in here just the day before.

“It was such a relief to find it had not touched any of the front of the house, it had left the kitchen untouched as well,” Villa said. 

This wasn’t the first time a Villa family business was threatened by a fire.

“My father’s original business which was a small liquor store and market was burned down in a riot in 1971. So that is really my only or baseline when it comes to fire in a business, and that was a 100% loss,” said Villa. 

To come back after the fire and see everything up front still intact, Villa wasn’t acting like someone whose business was just on fire.

“I was quite giddy. I was so excited, oh my God, everything is fine look the restaurant is fine. I do think they thought I was quite mad, but I was expecting, you know, a burning piece of rubble,” Villa said. 

Villa has a feeling his mother who passed away in February had something to do with it

“I just know my mom was like, ‘Nope, that is not happening, that fire stops right here,’” said Villa. 

Now the hard work begins.

“We are just wiping down cleaning everything sanitizing everything, making sure there isn’t any smoke or anything or any residue from the fire,” said Villa. “We will be back, just hold on, don’t give up on us, and we will be right back.” 

Villa says she doesn’t expect to be closed for very long, they are just waiting on some parts for their electrical system. She fully expects to be open in time to celebrate the restaurant’s 50th anniversary this summer.