Up to Seven FDs Battle 3-Alarm Blaze at TX Meat Market

A fire enveloped a Haltom City meat market located in a strip mall on Tuesday morning, destroying the store and sending dark smoke into the air that damaged two adjacent businesses, Fire Chief Fred Napp told the Star-Telegram over the phone.

There were no injuries in the fire, which more than 50 firefighters were still working to put out as of noon, Napp said.

A section of the roof of La Mexicana Meat Market in the 4100 block of Denton Highway toward the back of the store was collapsed when firefighters arrived around 8 a.m., he said. As of noon, he said, firefighters had contained the blaze to the meat market but were still putting out smoldering hot spots, which were difficult to get to because of large pieces of debris like beams that fell with the roof.

They were using a Gradall — similar to a backhoe — that didn’t get there until around 11 a.m.

It’s unclear where the fire began or what caused it, Napp said, but firefighters who first arrived on the scene found fire and smoke coming from the back of the store. After entering the building to confirm everyone had already evacuated, they began attacking the blaze from the outside, he said.

They didn’t enter the building due to the collapse in the back of the store.

“We train for scenarios just exactly like this, where the officer will make a judgment call,” Napp said. “We pulled everybody out out of caution, and we went defensive.”

La Mexicana has three stores in Texas, according to the company’s Facebook page. Someone who answered the company’s main phone number on Tuesday declined to comment.

More than 50 firefighters from six or seven local agencies were focusing on containing the fire on Tuesday morning, with the meat market located in between a Fresenius Medical Care dialysis center and a Women Infants and Children (WIC) clinic in the strip mall.

There were firefighters in each building making sure the fire wasn’t spreading, Napp said. There was “lots of smoke damage” in both businesses.

Although the brunt of the damage to La Mexicana was in the back of the store, the fire spread throughout the building and caused significant damage, Napp said. The owners of the store, he said, will have to “totally rebuild this building because you have big steel beams inside that have collapsed.”

The meat market’s hours are 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., according to its Facebook page.

He said around noon he anticipated firefighters could be on the scene for a couple more hours moving debris and putting out the remaining hot spots. They would have to bring part of the roof down so it doesn’t fall on anyone entering the building.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

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