The future of the building, owned by Brian de Geest, was yesterday in the hands of an insurance assessor after about 20 Oamaru and Weston firefighters spent six hours fighting the fire and ensuring it was extinguished.
Fire safety officer Barry Gibson said the fire started in the cooking vats of the Turret.
Oamaru chief fire officer Gary Gibson said two units from Oamaru and one from Weston were called to the fire about 3.30am.
At that stage, it was confined to the Turret takeaways, but spread into an upstairs flat.
The first priority was to ensure nobody was in the upstairs flat or in the two-storey residence at the rear of the building.
One two-man crew with breathing apparatus, along with other firefighters, started fighting the blaze while other crews checked the building for occupants.
"Luckily, the building was not occupied," he said.
Five crews of two firefighters each were used during the fire.
The Turret takeaways and the upstairs flat suffered fire, smoke and water damage.
Stefano's Pizzas takeaway and restaurant next door suffered mainly smoke and water damage.
The two-storey flat to the rear had no serious damage, apart from minor smoke damage.
Firefighters had the fire under control in about 75 minutes, but units remained on site until about 9.30am to dampen down hot spots and assist the fire safety officer.
Mr de Geest and his property manager Marcus Brown inspected the damage to the building at dawn yesterday.
Mr Brown said most of the building had major fire damage.
Until the insurance assessor had inspected the damage, he did not know whether the building would be repaired or would have to be demolished.
Mr Brown said it was fortunate neither the upstairs flat above Stefano's, which was being used as an office-storage, nor the back residence was occupied at the time of the fire.
