Citizen Staff Writer
Law and Order Report
DAVID L. TEIBEL
dteibel@tucsoncitizen.com
A three-alarm fire at a strip of businesses in the Lost Barrio near downtown may have done more than $1 million of damage, a Tucson Fire Department spokeswoman said.
Damage from the Tuesday afternoon fire originally was pegged at $600,000, according to fire Capt. Tricia Tracy.
She said investigators now say that, depending on structural damage to some of the eight or 10 stores in the strip of businesses and damage to the stores’ contents, the figure could rise to $1.25 million.
No injuries were reported in the fire, fought by 75 firefighters.
The fire at Lost Barrio, which extends from 200 to 350 S. Park Avenue, near East Broadway, was reported at 5:16 p.m.
Firefighters brought the fire under control at 6:09 p.m.
They fought the fire from the outside, shooting 500 gallons of water a minute from hoses onto the roof of the building from ladders about 50 feet above the fire.
Some of the shops are inside a red-brick building built in the early 1900s. Others are newer. None of the buildings had sprinkler systems, Tracy said.
The businesses sell furniture, art and collectibles from Mexico and Latin America.
Tracy said fire walls in between the stores kept the blaze from reaching other stores.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, Tracy said.