Posted on Mon, Nov. 20, 2006 LITTLE HAVANA Suspicious blaze destroys shops in Calle Ocho mall A suspicious fire ravaged a strip mall on Calle Ocho, destroying several businesses. BY ROB BARRY rbarry@MiamiHerald.com Business owners in a Little Havana strip mall that caught fire got a hint something was wrong when a brick was thrown through the window of Julio Lima's pawnshop. Lima rushed to his shop, Joyeria Las Americas, after a call from a neighboring store owner. Lima found only a broken window. Less than a half-hour later, a huge fire engulfed Lima's shop and four other businesses at 1892 SW Eighth St., including a landmark Spanish-language bookstore in business in Miami since the 1960s. Sunday's fire may be the latest in a string of arson blazes plaguing Little Havana in recent months, said Miami fire-rescue spokesman Ignatius E. Carroll. The strip mall was destroyed, taking its corner anchor, Librería Cervantes, a neighborhood staple for decades. The fire broke out about 9:30 a.m. ''I came in, and everything was fine,'' Lima said of the minutes before the fire erupted. He spent 20 minutes checking his security cameras, then he heard a loud noise -- ''like things exploding'' -- on the roof. Suddenly, store owner Santos Campaneria came running into Lima's shop saying there was black smoke billowing into his dollar store. Lima grabbed a fire extinguisher, and the two men ran back to fight the flames but were quickly overwhelmed. They called 911. When firefighters arrived, they discovered an inferno that could be seen for miles as smoke billowed high into the sky. More than 65 firefighters struggled for almost three hours to quell the flames. FEEDING THE FLAMES Over the years, the building's roof has had many repairs, and each repair added a new layer of flammable material, Carroll said. That helped the fire spread quickly, burning its way from shop to shop, until all five stores were gone. Besides Librería Cervantes -- which had been at the strip mall since at least 1993, and for years before that at its original location on West Flagler Street -- the fire also destroyed the dollar store and a cigar shop. Investigators are trying to determine the cause of the fire, but the story that Lima and Campaneria told them indicated something was amiss, Carroll said. ''We don't know if we got a firebug -- an arsonist -- or just kids playing around,'' Carroll said. Sunday's blaze was the latest and one of the worst in a series of suspicious fires that have ravaged businesses and homes in the area. In addition, several small trash fires have popped up along Southwest Eighth Street recently. Over the past few months, fires have damaged a home, a bakery and an apartment complex in Little Havana. Each has been ruled arson. ''This is one of the worst'' of the recent fires, Carroll said. PREVIOUS FIRES Here's a list of the other incidents: • Nov 9: In a ''suspicious fire'' at Southwest Fourth Street and 16th Avenue, a single apartment burned. • Sept. 27: A fire burned a 33-foot boat, a 25-foot boat and a pickup truck, and damaged a house on Northwest 30th Place. • Sept. 22: A fire burned Nicaragua Bakery, vacant for four months, at 1169 SW Eighth St., damaging seven stores -- three occupied and four vacant, including the former home of El Rey de las Fritas. • Sept. 6: A blaze burned through a 30-unit apartment complex at 2295 SW Ninth St., displacing 48 people. Miami Herald staff writer Evan S. Benn contributed to this report. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2006 MiamiHerald.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.miami.com |
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