Massive fire tears through tire shop in the Bronx
NEW YORK -- The FDNY was busy overnight battling massive flames during a fire at a Bronx tire shop.
The two alarm fire started shortly before midnight.
Reality is setting in for the business owners who've been impacted by the fire, which burned for more than two hours. Luckily, no one was inside.
The cleanup process has begun as investigators try to piece together what happened.
It's a total loss for two neighboring shops which are now out of business after the intense fire tore through their property.
Flames could be seen from miles away in the air overnight. One man said he watched the smoke from Fordham Road.
"It was ridiculous. You can smell all in the air and around," Rubel Ali said.
Fire officials say it started at around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. It took crews two and a half hours to put it out.
One man said he worked a the tire shop and noticed one of the wires in the back of the place was sparking before flames erupted.
A field of tires and debris remained from what was a neighborhood tire shop. Next door is a flower shop. Workers tried to salvage what was inside.
"I would say that 40-50% of the flower shop is beat up. A lot of the beams are burned," Omar Reyes of Miguel's Flower Shop said.
Next door is a home care business. Workers mopped up water inside. Manager Deborah Forbes says the impact on them is nothing in comparison.
"I hope they find out what the cause of it was," Forbes said. "It's sad. It really is sad. Like I said today there's so many people who've lost their jobs."
A firefighter suffered minored injuries.
The cause of the fire is yet to be determined.