DALLAS — Fire officials were responding to a blaze in the 11000 block of Harry Hines Boulevard on Friday morning, Dallas Fire-Rescue said.
DFR officials told WFAA that crews were assigned to this call at 7:01 a.m. Friday after a 911 caller reported a "huge fire across the street” at 11287 Harry Hines Boulevard.
When firefighters arrived at the scene, they observed heavy smoke coming from the one-story commercial structure, DFR said. The store, Army Navy Plus, happened to receive a large shipment of product the day before. DFR said the shipment was packed into the store in such a way that prevented firefighters from making entry to better access the fire, so efforts were defensive early on.
Joan Walker and her son Bradley run the store that Joan's husband first started 33 years ago. Bradley works there from open to close, every day.
"We’re in shock right now. We don’t know what to think. We don’t know what’s going to happen," Bradley Walker said. “It’s part of the family."
DFR said it was working to extinguish the fire and the blaze had escalated to a four-alarm fire, resulting in close to 100 firefighters on scene using aerial and ground master streams to bring the fire under control. There was no one inside the business when the fire began, and there have not been any reported injuries, according to DFR.
“Just a total loss. I still don’t know what to think of it," Bradley Walker said. “I walked out yesterday, closed at 6:30. Never thought that’d be the last time I was in it.”
They estimate hundreds of thousands of inventory were inside at the time of the fire, but there were also irreplaceable items including those that belonged to Joan's husband.
"There was a chair that sat there where my husband always sat and it had his vest on it and it’s gone," she said through tears.
The fire was causing heaving smoke in the area, which was located near Walnut Hill Lane and Interstate 35E.
A Dallas Fire Rescue Engine headed to this fire drove into a ditch, according to officials. DFR said the crew was traveling southbound on Reeder Road, and in an effort to bypass traffic, they got too far onto the shoulder of the road and rolled the engine onto its side into a ditch. DFR said all occupants of the engine were safely taken out of the vehicle, and there were no injuries related to the crash.
According to investigators, preliminary reports indicated the fire most-likely began at a location in the back of the store, but exactly how is unknown, DFR said.
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