JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A fire at the Caribbean Star restaurant abruptly ended Tuesday's lunch service and forced police to close Blanding Boulevard for about an hour.

A worker said a gas smoker exploded.

"When I went there, it just exploded," employee Patrick Lovelace told Channel 4's Jim Piggott.

Lovelace said he grabbed a fire extinguisher and tried to contain the fire, but flames spread through the kitchen and the restaurant filled with smoke. Employees and a customers in the restaurant at the time evacuated.

A passing police officer noticed the smoke and called 911. Dozens of Jacksonville Fire-Rescue units responded and had the fire knocked down in about 20 minutes.

No one was injured in the fire, but it did an estimated $150,000 in damage to the building, but a firewall kept the flames from spreading to a neighboring insurance business or the rest of the strip mall.

Firefighting equipment and hoses blocked traffic on Blanding through until about 2 p.m.

Fire investigators remained on site all afternoon trying to identify what caused the fire.