A lot of people got sick eating at one of the Firefly restaurants in Las Vegas; at least 294.

The Southern Nevada Health District (SNHD) concluded that of the 21 food items that were analyzed, one item, cooked chorizo (a type of sausage), tested positive for Salmonella. Culture and PFGE-pattern results of the Salmonella isolate obtained from the cooked chorizo matched those of the outbreak strain.

Environmental Health staff contacted Firefly restaurant management to gather more information about the handling of the chorizo product. The chorizo came into the restaurant raw and was subsequently cooked by Firefly restaurant staff.

It is likely that the outbreak was due to local cross-contamination in the restaurant’s kitchen and not from a contaminated commercial food.

Now, KTNV reports the Firefly location on West Sahara Avenue is closing for weekday lunch and has laid off a handful of its staff members.

“Letting people go is devastating because they have worked for us for so long,” co-owner Tabitha Simmons tells Action News.

Tabitha’s husband and Firely co-owner John Simmons says the couple has been fighting their hardest to dig the Las Vegas chain out of the hole.

“It’s just sad because we’ve been vilified and we did not want anyone to get hurt. We certainly weren’t managing our restaurants poorly,” says Tabitha.

Consumers are apparently making their own decisions.

“We don’t want to go away. We don’t want to be run out of here. We want to continue being a part of community and we hope Las Vegas gives us that chance,” they tell Action News. 

A new Firefly Tapas Kitchen & Bar opened over the weekend at 3824 Paradise Road, a few doors down from the old Firefly, home to a salmonella outbreak last month that sickened 294 people from 27 states and two foreign countries.

Tabitha Simmons, John Simmons’ wife and business partner, told the Las Vegas Sun, “I think we were a little apprehensive about opening. We really want to put our best foot forward, and we want to gain people’s trust back. We’re not taking this lightly.”

John Simmons recently said he had no plans to reopen the original Firefly location on Paradise because he would be moving ahead with plans that were already in place to open the new restaurant by the end of the month. He signed a lease for the new space in August.

He said inspectors from the Southern Nevada Health District approved the restaurant to open May 21. Inspectors were not immediately available for comment Friday.

Cooked chorizo collected from the previous Firefly restaurant on Paradise Road tested positive for salmonella, according to Linh Nguyen, an epidemiologist with the Health District.

Though the chorizo arrived at the restaurant raw, it was subsequently cooked by Firefly’s restaurant staff. Nguyen said the genetic fingerprint of the salmonella found in the chorizo has not been found anywhere else in the country, suggesting it was contaminated at the restaurant.

Simmons said chorizo will remain on the menu at the new restaurant.

“We still offer it,” Tabitha Simmons said. “All of the additional precautions we’ve put in place allows us to offer it.”