GUILDERLAND — Friday afternoon, the staff of Nirvana, Guilderland’s popular Indian restaurant, were on the patio for their usual break when one of the workers went inside to use the restroom.

“He smelled smoke,” said Ann Thomas, one of the partners who own the Route 20 eatery.

The kitchen was filled with smoke so the worker called 9-1-1, Thomas said, telling The Enterprise how events unfolded.

Thomas stood outside the restaurant on Friday at about 4:30 p.m., watching as volunteer firefighters worked to quell the blaze inside the stucco and frame one-story building. The air was humid and the temperature was 85 degrees as firefighters worked wearing heavy turnout gear.

Smoke billowed from a hole cut in the back of the mansard roof, which firefighters had accessed from a ladder truck.

“It is very hard,” said Thomas as she watched. “The important thing is no one was hurt. That’s the important thing,” she reiterated.

She didn’t yet know what the damages were. “We are insured,” she said.

The Guilderland Town Hall and police station are across Route 20 from the restaurant; police arrived first on the scene. Captain Daniel McNally, fire investigator for the police, told The Enterprise there was extensive fire damage to the kitchen and, although investigators had not yet been able to “get in there and take things apart,” he believed that the fire was related to an air-conditioner.

Brian Forte, a Guilderland firefighter, gave a report to the press as television cameras lined up across Route 20 to film the firefighters at work. Forte said that there had been heavy smoke and that a fire in the kitchen had been extinguished. The departments battling the fire were from Guilderland, Guilderland Center, Fort Hunter, and Westmere. North Bethlehem provided a rehab unit, and McKownville was on standby.