Rochester crews have controlled building fire at Lawrence Street and East Ave

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Fire Department has controlled a three alarm fire Wednesday morning at a building at the corner of Lawrence Street and East Avenue.

Firefighters say they rescued a cat from the fire and there were no injuries. One person escaped from the fire.

RFD says they contained the fire to a room in a one-story building but the smoke went into surrounding homes and businesses, causing concern. Firefighters used fans to allow smoke to escape.

Veneto’s Wood Fired Pizza & Pasta Tweeted about the fire, which impacted their restaurant. Veneto’s will expand its hours at its Gates location to accommodate guests and employees.

Veneto East Ave had a fire early this morning. While we work through the situation on East Ave, we will post some expanded hours for our Westside location so we can keep our employees working & accommodate reservations from East that would like to dine with us at Westside. pic.twitter.com/vUPQGpaCb7

— Veneto’s Pizza & Pasta (@venetos17) January 4, 2023

RFD is still working to determine the cause of the fire. The street is closed at East Avenue and Union Street.