A popular Vineyard Haven restaurant faces the prospect of being shut down by the town within weeks as a result of the building owner’s persistent failure to address multiple, longstanding breaches of fire safety codes.

Already the Tropical restaurant, at Five Corners, has been ordered to stop cooking in a kitchen which has been found to breach safety regulations in a number of ways. Tisbury fire chief John Schilling served a cease and desist order on the restaurant owner on Tuesday.

And at that evening’s meeting of the Tisbury selectmen, at Chief Schilling’s urging, it was resolved to call a public hearing on August 17, to consider suspension or revocation of the restaurant’s license to operate.

It was the second time in as many meetings that the board has foreshadowed tough action against deadbeat landlords. Two weeks ago, the main target was the nearby Golden Dragon Chinese restaurant, but the concern there was with the decrepit appearance of the building.

This case is far more serious. Chief Schilling outlined a long list of breaches of code which stretch back over years and which, he said, made the kitchen a fire “just waiting to happen.”

He later detailed his concerns to the Gazette, as well as the persistent failure of the building’s owner, Eric Anderson, to address them.

“The exhaust hood that is over the commercial cooking line is made of aluminum, not stainless steel. It does not afford the required protection between the heat of the cooking operation and the wooden building behind it.

“The exhaust fan does not cover the entire cooking line. There’s a fryolator on one end that is beyond the hood, so all the fumes and grease and vapors that are supposed to up into this exhaust hood and be filtered, are not. On the other end of the cooking line is a rotisserie. There’s no protection for that either,” he said.

Inside the exhaust hood, he said, there should be a pressurized fire suppression system which, in the case of a fire, would automatically activate to extinguish it.

“That is not functioning,” Chief Schilling said. “Elements of it are actually missing, and have been covered up with duct tape.”

The exhaust hood had been in that condition for at least two years, he said. The last inspection of the system was in 2008, when a deficiency notice was issued on it by a private inspector. Inspections are supposed to be made annually.

“And there’s no fire extinguishers in there. So not only is the automatic system not functioning, there’s no manual backup system,” the chief said.

Behind the cooking line, the wall should be covered with fire-rated sheetrock, so heat is not transferring into the wood frame construction of the building. There is none.

“Furthermore, the sprinkler system wasn’t functioning. They’re required to have an annual inspection, but it had not been done in three years. The last inspection in 2007 indicated there were two problems. One, the air compressor which is supposed to maintain pressure within the system, was not functioning. Two, the fire department connection to the building was not working. So should there be a fire in the building, we couldn’t connect in to their system,” he said, adding:

“Mr. Anderson was notified of this problem in 2007. He did nothing for three years.”

Nor was Mr. Anderson spurred to action when, on May 20, Chief Schilling provided a list of the safety issues in the kitchen to him and to the operator of the restaurant.

“Instead of just closing the place down, I gave them 30 days to bring it all into compliance. Obviously, equipment needs to be ordered, some things need to be built and I was trying to give them a reasonable time to address these matters,” he said.

“I also cited Mr. Anderson for failure to maintain the sprinkler system, and gave him 30 days to fix that, too.”

But it took Mr. Anderson two months — and the threat of further citings and escalating fines — to fix the sprinklers.

The other problems still have not been addressed. Mr. Anderson, who is on an overseas trip, said he would address them on his return, in about three weeks.

In response, Chief Schilling said he had already been given 60 days, more than enough time to deal with the problems.

“I gave him seven days to get back to me with evidence of action or I would issue additional fines and potentially close the restaurant. I gave him that warning on July 22, and I have not had another word from him,” Chief Schilling said.

“I gave him until the 29th. On the 30th, last Friday, I contacted the selectmen’s office, to get on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting, to begin the process of revoking the common victualer’s license, to close the restaurant down.”

The chief said he felt considerable sympathy for the restaurant owner, who had only taken over the business about six months ago.

“He’s the first guy who’s really making a go of things in there and he’s got a loyal clientele. But unfortunately he’s also got a landlord who’s unresponsive. It puts him in a bad situation, and dragged this out into the middle of the season, when it could have been fixed before the season began.”

The necessary modifications will likely be time-consuming, involving multiple permits relating to fire safety, gas, electricity and building code.

For now, the Tropical can continue to serve food, as long as it does not have to be prepared with the fryer, rotisserie, gas cooktop or grill.

The town board of health also is investigating conditions at the restaurant.