The fire that occurred on Christmas morning has forced the closure of several local businesses, including Tesoro gift shop and Umberto hair salon. (photo courtesy of Tara Riceberg)

In the early hours of Christmas morning on North Cañon Drive in Beverly Hills, an oily rag is believed to have spontaneously combusted, igniting a blaze that destroyed the more than 30-year-old Porta Via restaurant, put a longtime hair salon out of business, closed an optical boutique and left a gift store owner struggling to recover.

Tara Riceberg, whose gift boutique Tesoro has since been gutted due to toxic smoke damage, said the fire devastated the close-knit community on North Cañon Drive.

“You can’t give me back my customer interactions. You cannot give me back my retail community when I go to trade shows. You can’t give me back my purpose of being a champion for small business in the city, and a woman-owned business, when I no longer have my business. You can’t give me honoring my late mother’s memory by maintaining her brand,” Riceberg said.

Riceberg’s mother acquired the gift shop in the 1990s – which was founded in 1988 on Robertson Boulevard – and operated the business on the corner of Cañon Drive and Brighton Way until the early 2000s. The store then moved to Melrose Avenue, but Riceberg moved it back to Beverly Hills in 2019. Riceberg said the grief she experienced losing Tesoro mirrored what she went through losing her mother.

“And there’s no shiva for losing your business,” Riceberg added, referring to the weeklong mourning period in Judaism for relatives.

Although she hopes to reopen, Riceberg now faces challenges with insurance, finding a new location and the impacts of tariffs on imported goods – her shop’s specialty. In the meantime, she aims to bring awareness to the fire’s cause, which she believes could have been prevented with the proper equipment.

According to an independent investigator retained by the Beverly Hills Fire Department, the fire began in the kitchen of Porta Via shortly after midnight on Dec. 25, 2025. Security footage showed smoke emanating from the kitchen at approximately at 12:10 a.m., followed by flames at 12:14 a.m. The fire burned steadily for hours, until shortly after 4 a.m., when the blaze grew and flames began to reach the kitchen, bar and dining area. By 5 a.m., the roof of the restaurant had caught fire, which was visible from city surveillance cameras down the street.

At 5:45 a.m., an employee at The Wallis – located on the block immediately north of the restaurant – smelled smoke. The employee walked around the corner, saw the fire and called 911. The BHFD arrived within three minutes. However, by that time, the fire had burned for more than five hours, causing severe damage to the restaurant, including a collapsed roof. The nearby Tesoro gift shop and Umberto hair salon sustained extensive smoke damage. No one was hurt in the fire.

Two dishwashers were the last to leave the restaurant on Christmas Eve. They clocked out at 11:28 p.m., just over half an hour before the smoke became visible. While a cleaning crew usually arrives between 11 p.m. and midnight and stays until 3-4 a.m., the crew did not come in due to the Christmas holiday. The restaurant was scheduled to be closed on Christmas Day.

The restaurant did have functioning smoke alarms, but they were not monitored or connected to an alert system. Additionally, while the restaurant was equipped with an automatic fire extinguishing system in the kitchen that activated, it did not extinguish the fire. According to the report, “nozzles would have been pointed to the grill cookline, not the south side prep line, where the fire was burning.” The restaurant did not have a sprinkler system.

Due to the building’s age, it was not required to have monitored alarms or sprinklers, and the restaurant was up to code.

“The probable cause of this fire is spontaneous heating of oily rags,” the independent report stated. “The rags were most likely used to clean the grill and/or countertops near the end of the evening. The restaurant contracted with a linen and towel cleaning service that had collection bags at the rear door. However, these towels may have been inadvertently placed on the grill fridge. More likely than not, heat from an exothermic reaction ignited the cotton towels, and a fire developed.”

Every other possible cause – including electrical, lightning, gas appliances, careless smoking and arson – was ruled out by investigators. According to the National Fire Protection Association, an estimated 14,070 fires occur annually due to spontaneous combustion.

“Spontaneous combustion occurs when a combustible material is heated to its ignition temperature by an exothermic chemical reaction involving the oxygen in the air (oxidation),” the report stated. “The oxidation of the combustible material creates heat. If this heat cannot be dissipated, it will build up in the combustible material until ignition occurs. Generally, the buildup of heat to ignition occurs when the material is bunched up or in a pile, preventing the heat being generated from adequately escaping.”

Since the fire, Riceberg has committed to advocating for the fire code in Beverly Hills to be updated.

“I cannot believe that a restaurant does not have a monitored fire alarm. Just common sense for the safety of their staff, for their patrons and for their neighbors,” Riceberg said. “I have been on a mission from Day One, to say, we need to change the code. If it’s not just an oily rag spontaneously combusting, it could be an iPad spontaneously combusting.”

She said the BHFD and Chief Greg Barton have been receptive, and are working on finding a solution to the issue.

“The Beverly Hills Fire Department is working on a proposal to update the current fire code,” Barton said. “This is currently being reviewed by city staff and will ultimately be taken to City Council for review and approval at a future date.”

Riceberg’s store was also not equipped with smoke detectors. She said she became alerted of the fire when her security company called her at 6 a.m. on Christmas morning, reporting a break-in at her front door. When she called the police, they told her that it was the BHFD entering her store to fight the fire.

“It never occurred to me, as a retail store, to have a smoke detector, because I assumed wrongly that the restaurant next door to me would’ve been fine,” Riceberg said. “There’s nothing in my store that’s flammable. I’m to code, I have my fire extinguishers, but there’s nothing in my store to catch fire, so it never occurred to me to need a fire alarm.”

Nearly four months later, the impact of the fire is still being felt on North Cañon Drive.

In a statement posted on Instagram on Jan. 3, Umberto Beverly Hills – a staple of the street for 48 years – announced it would be permanently closing partly due to the smoke damage.

“This was not an easy choice. Our salon has been far more than a place of work. It has been a second home, a creative space and a community built on trust, artistry and longstanding relationships,” the statement read.

Riceberg said the salon served as a special place for many seniors who had been going there for years, as Umberto had valet parking that made it easily accessible.

The owners of Umberto did not respond to a request for additional comment by press time.

Dan Deutsch, the eyeglass store located at 430 N. Canon Drive, was also forced to close due to smoke damage. Deutsch confirmed on April 27 that the store will not reopen due to challenges from the fire’s aftermath, including decreased foot traffic. Dan Deutsch has several other locations, including a store on North Bedford Drive that has operated for 35 years.

Porta Via owner Peter Garland – who opened the California bistro in Beverly Hills in 1994 – said the restaurant plans to reopen at a new location this summer. The restaurant has additional locations in Calabasas and Palm Desert. Its Pacific Palisades location, in the Palisades Village, was forced to close in 2025 due to smoke damage from the Palisades fire.

“We are currently planning to reopen Porta Via in Beverly Hills this summer in a new location at 187 N. Cañon Drive, a few blocks south of our former location,” Garland said. “While the fire was obviously a significant setback, it also presented us with a unique opportunity to thoughtfully evolve the space while staying true to what our guests know and expect from us, and to welcome, sustain and expand our beloved community upon which we depend.”

Garland said the new space will have “upgraded fire detection,” including monitored smoke detectors and a sprinkler system in line with current standards.

Garland also acknowledged the impact the fire had on the nearby community.

“Porta Via was a fixture on the 400 block of Canon for 31 years, so the impact of the fire was deeply felt, not just for us, but across the neighboring businesses,” Garland said. “In the immediate aftermath, we were in contact with those affected, including Tesoro, Umberto and Dan Deutsch Optical. It was a difficult time for everyone involved, and there was a shared sense of disruption across the block. We’ve all been working through our respective recovery processes since then.”

Riceberg said that while she received condolences from members of the community and city government, she has not received the support she expected from the city or the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce, of which she is a member. However, she added that the city and chamber simply may not have the resources to deal with a fire the likes of which rarely happens in the Golden Triangle.

“In fairness, nobody has really the skillset or the tools to deal with somebody like me because they’ve never had to deal with a situation like this before,” Riceberg said. “But I think what matters is to say to [the] chamber, ‘hey moving forward there needs to be a gameplan in place for assistance.’”

She added that the city could have done more to support the businesses impacted.

“Three legacy businesses,” Riceberg said. “Why didn’t City Hall do something to help honor us? Or say, ‘this has been a tremendous loss to our community.’”

Although the future of Tesoro is uncertain, Riceberg hopes that she will be able to reopen to return a sense of community to her shoppers, employees and connections she has made throughout the years.

“I had an [employee] with special needs. She just can’t go out and get a job,” Riceberg said. “My store has been her safe home and her safe space since 2020.”