Standing outside his popular Southtown eatery Monday during what should have been the lunch rush, La Tuna Grill owner Mark Dortman was instead picking through the remnants of a blistering fire hours earlier.

“The kitchen is demolished,” he said, adding the equipment was “all just melted.”

Dortman, 49, said he was able to salvage chairs and tables from the dining room. The owner of neighboring Pedicab Bar and Grill wasn't as lucky. That business was a total loss, fire officials said.

The metal siding used in the construction of both La Tuna and Pedicab, at the corner of Probandt and East Cevallos streets, contributed to a hotter-than-normal fire that required additional manpower to contain, said San Antonio Fire Department Capt. Eric Jones.

“There's tin outside and on the inside of both,” Jones said. “It makes it really, really hot in there.”

One firefighter was taken to the hospital with heat- and fatigue-related injuries but was expected to be fine, Jones said.

Officials were still investigating the cause of the fire that likely began in the back of the Pedicab building.

A tenant living in an apartment above La Tuna Grill told officials he heard a “small explosion” around 5:45 a.m., looked out his window and saw flames. He rushed down the stairs and made it out safely, Jones said.

The fire quickly engulfed Pedicab. Dozens of firefighters from nearly 40 units were called in and police blocked both Probandt and Cevallos streets for several hours. By 8 a.m. the fire was out, except some small hot spots. The damage was estimated at $100,000 for Pedicab and around $40,000 for La Tuna, said SAFD spokeswoman Melissa Sparks.

The owner of Pedicab was not available for comment. Dortman said the cost estimate appeared low but he wasn't sure of the total as of Monday afternoon.

He and his wife, Anna, 43, opened La Tuna Grill seven years ago in a building that sits just behind the La Tuna icehouse, which first opened in the early 1990s. The ice house building was not affected, fire officials said.

And while the cleanup would take a couple of months, Dortman said, he and his wife had wanted to renovate.

“This will give us time to reassess and make it an even better place,” he said.