CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Emergency crews with the Corpus Christi Fire Department were hard at work Tuesday morning battling a fire on Everhart Road and Lamont Street.
Reports from the scene suggest that the fire, which had been seemingly extinguished, began again around 6:20 a.m.
Crews arrived to the location at 12:51 a.m. to find flames already pouring out the storefront of Fonzie Munoz Photography.
"Flames were already shooting through the roof," said CCFD Battalion Chief Billy Belyeu. With how far the fire had progressed, crews needed to make a decision.
"We went in and tried to make an attack from the inside," Chief Belyeu told us, "but it was already progressed too far so we had to pull out."
By this point, there was a real threat of the fire spreading to other buildings. Crews worked to cut through the roof and spray out the flames before it could spread.
"Which is always our goal make sure nobody gets hurt, make sure the fire doesn't spread to another building, and put the building that’s on fire out."
Although no injuries have been reported, the damage has been "extensive" according to officials.
At this time, the cause of the fire is under investigation, but officials say it was likely electrical.
"The owners did notice a flickering of the lights before they left and ended up leaving 30 minutes before the fire started so we’re leaning towards electrical,” Chief Belyeu said.
“We’ve all been at home and noticed the flickering of the light every now and then and think nothing of it or you may do a little bit of investigating," Belyeu explained.
"In this case it happened to be a fire and they weren’t able to catch it but they got out of the structure they’re not hurt. These are just possessions, they’ll be able to recover.”
Editor's note: the above video is from roughly 6:00 a.m.
There is good news, however. Although the damage to the building was severe, reports indicate that Munoz was able to recover most of his product.
At this time, he tells us that he's been able to recover roughly 90% of what was saved digitally to company hard drives, as well as many of the frames and physical photos within the building.
This is a developing story, so stay with KIII 3 News for more information.
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