A fire that destroyed Vancouver's Tandoori King restaurant started accidentally in the restaurant’s kitchen Wednesday evening, investigators say.

The three-alarm fire at the 20-year Fraser Street landmark burned for 12 hours before firefighters managed finally to put it out.

The fire was initially discovered almost by accident, said owner Manny Kooner.

"One of our staff, they were throwing out garbage and they noticed there was a fire on the roof. She came in, warned us, we all came out, we evacuated the second floor," Kooner said.

Firefighters went inside and attempted to prevent the fire from spreading, but before long, the flames had spread and smoke was pouring from the roof.

"There are a number of void areas in this roof as well that made it very difficult for us to get to what we call the seat of the fire," said Capt. Gabe Roder, of Vancouver Fire Rescue.

Roder said fire crews were soon forced from the building, and had to attack it from the outside, but it was a long and difficult process.

No decision on rebuilding

Firefighters doused the building with a massive amount of water, which ran down the slope and damaged neighbouring businesses.

Another restaurant, the Tandoori Raj, was flooded and lost power, leaving staff in the dark trying to determine the extent of the damage.

"All the water that was coming down there and it just gushed into the restaurant and into the alley and all that,” said owner Suki Dhillon.

The Fraser Street restaurant burned for 12 hours before firefighters were able to put it out. (CBC)

Dhillon said he will be open for business again soon.

But the Tandoori King's owners struggle with the thought of starting all over.

"Never thought about it,” said Kooner. “Never thought it would come to a point where we would need to make some kind of decision like this."

There were no injuries. Damage amounts were still be counted up late Thursday.

With files from the CBC's Tim Weekes