Impact of fire hits 2 businesses

WALTHAM -- For Salvatore "Sal" Pinzone it didn't really hit home that his restaurant was gone until last Friday, when workers digging through the rubble of the burned-out building found the safe where he kept the evening's receipts and the next day's change.

"It was like I was taking the last bones out of a body," Pinzone said, shaking his head, which at 79-and-a-half is heavy with gray curls. He was still wearing his white uniform -- now dusted with soot -- which reads "Sal's Pizza" in embroidery on the left side. "Everything that I worked for in my life."

An accidental fire on July 15 left a burned-out shell in place of the restaurant. It also destroyed California Convenience, a neighboring store. Waltham fire officials say that the fire started in the basement of Sal's, probably from an electrical malfunction or a gas leak that somehow ignited.

Someone who didn't know Sal's Family Restaurant, who'd never run into old friends there or eaten a plate of pasta with the establishment's famous marinara sauce, might see the contents of that safe as the sole undamaged material proof of that life: $189 in tens, fives, ones, and coins.

But generations of Sal's customers know better. They've told him so in dozens of letters, cards, and phone calls expressing their sympathies and thanks for all the good food and good times. Sitting at the kitchen table in his home, Pinzone picks out one letter in particular. It tells him that the sum of a good life isn't measured by what one builds, or by the material things left behind -- it's measured in good deeds, hospitality, and friends who stand with you when everything else is gone.

Pinzone still isn't sure if he will rebuild. The expense of replacing the equipment alone, never mind the building, is huge. He said he had finally reached a point where he didn't owe anything, and he doesn't know if he wants to amass new debt as he nears his ninth decade of life.

Santosh Suvedi, who owns California Convenience, said he's still in shock over the loss. At 35, he wants to rebuild -- if not on the same site, then somewhere else in the city. This was the first business he has had in this country since moving from Nepal 10 years ago. Seeing the venture he started only a few months ago in ashes is "frustrating," he said, but he's determined to build it back up, no matter how long it takes.

"Definitely I'm going to restart the business. I'm not going to give up, you know," said Suvedi, who is married and has a 6-year-old daughter. "I like the Waltham area -- Waltham as a city is very good."

In the meantime, Suvedi said he'll go back to a part-time job at Citizens Bank until he can save enough money to return to the business.

State Representative Peter Koutoujian, who lives down the street from Sal's, said he's trying to help Pinzone and Suvedi find government resources to help them rebuild. Among the options are disaster-relief loans from the Small Business Administration and help from the state Secretary of Economic Development.

Whatever the future holds, Pinzone cherishes the 41 years of the restaurant's existence.

"Sincere thanks to all our customers from the bottom of my heart -- to the ones who I knew their first name, and to the ones whose names I didn't know, for stepping through the door and allowing us to make an honest living," Pinzone said.

Stephanie V. Siek can be reached at ssiek@globe.com.