A major fire at a popular Gilroy restaurant, Los Junior’s Mariscos, broke out Tuesday morning
GILROY, Calif. (KION-TV) -- Gilroy Fire says that a popular eatery in the area, Los Junior's Mariscos, is a total loss after a fire broke out along First Street Tuesday morning.
According to the fire department, the fire started around 7:30 a.m. and multiple agencies responded to try and salvage the restaurant.
“There was a door open on the back side with smoke coming out," said Fire Division Chief Arlen Summers. "Our first engine arrived on scene, saw the fire and spotted on the side of the building. The rear door was open with heavy black smoke coming up, so they upgraded it to a full alarm response."
Although the business did not survive, the fire department said there were not injuries reported because no one was in the building when the fire broke out.
Investigators are calling the fire "suspicious" and are looking to determine the cause.
“We actually called in Gilroy PD to assist because they have an arson investigator just to help us with the the investigation side of it," said Chief Summers. "And what they do is they they dig deeper than what we can as far as looking at some of the camera footage which they should be able to get just to kind of rule out certain things."
Firefighters say that the first floor sustained the most damage, while the second floor partially collapsed.
"[There was] no fire in the basement. The fire did extend in the walls and through some of the floor, which caused a little partial collapse of the second floor," said Chief Summers.
Nearly 40 firefighters responded to the scene Tuesday, taking an hour and a half to get under control and leaving behind significant damage inside the building, window glass shattered, boarded up windows and yellow caution tape around the perimeter.
