Fort Worth firefighters Capt. Robert Webb, front, and Marty Starnes battle a three-alarm blaze Tuesday night on North Beach Street.
ADT Security called Larry Brown Tuesday night and told him the backdoor motion detector at his printing shop was going off.
"Wait, now the front-door detector is, too," the woman said.
Brown jumped in his car and sped from his Burleson home toward his northeast Fort Worth business, Instant Reproductions. When saw the orange glow in the sky, he knew what had triggered the alarm.
About 50 firefighters fought the three-alarm blaze in the strip mall at North Beach and East Belknap streets. Fire officials estimated damage at $2 million.
"We've been here 2 71/2 years," Brown said Wednesday. "I couldn't sleep at all last night."
The cause of the fire is undetermined, but it does not appear to be suspicious, Fire Capt. David Coble said. It probably started in the wall in a storeroom of the Almart Dollar Store, next door to Brown's business.
The flames spread through the attic, he said. At least five businesses had heavy smoke and water damage.
Brown stepped over crushed ceiling tiles and insulation in his shop. Debris covered his copy machines, stained by water. The odor of smoke was overpowering.
Insurance will cover the damage, he said. But repairs will take weeks.
"We'll have to pull all the equipment out and see what's working," he said. "But we'll be back. We've been here too long to leave."
Two stores down, Victor Ortiz, 23, and Mike Bashir, 22, loaded files and papers in cardboard boxes. The young men opened their first business, A-Star Auto Insurance, together five weeks ago.
"Can you believe it?" Ortiz said. "We've been here a month. We were doing pretty good, too."
Plywood covered the broken front window, which firefighters had to break to get in. Ceiling debris covered still-new desks and chairs.
He and Bashir will clean up and reopen, Ortiz said.
"I guess this stuff happens," he said.
Distributed by the Associated Press
