HIALEAH, FLA. (WSVN) - Firefighters have extinguished a large fire that erupted at two Hialeah businesses overnight.
City of Hialeah Fire Rescue responded to the scene in the area of East Ninth Street and Eighth Avenue, just before 2 a.m., Friday.
7News cameras captured fierce flames and smoke shooting out of a mattress store and Domino’s.
Jaime Cespedes, the owner of the mattress shop Universal Bedding, said that he doesn’t know if the fire was intentionally set or if it was an accident.
“They called me, but I was sleeping and had my phone on silent,” Cespedes said in Spanish.
Cespedes arrived at his business to find the mattresses burned by the flames, which caused about $100,000 in damage. Cleaning up the damage will take a while for him and his six employees.
“Everything is burned, and I have to go inside and clean once the police give me the authorization,” Cespedes said.
Officials said firefighters heard an explosion when they arrived.
“Very significant damage to the mattress business,” said Hialeah Fire Lt. Carlos Castellanos. “Not so much to the Domino’s because we were able to control the flames as we arrived.”
The firefighters’ swift response to the fire played a role in preventing the fire from spreading to the Domino’s just a few feet away from the mattress shop.
“This could’ve been a lot worse,” Castellanos said. “We probably would’ve lost both structures.”
Cespedes said that this was the second time he has dealt with a fire at his business, but this one fire was by far the worst.
“I’ve put so much effort into the business for the last 10 years,” Cespedes said. “We created a good amount of clients, and now we have to start from scratch.”
The fire was contained before it could spread to neighboring businesses.
No injuries have been reported.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
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