HARLINGEN — Two months after one of the city’s biggest fires in years, the owner of Johnny’s True Value Hardware is razing the building.
The demolition of the building at 914 W. Tyler Ave. is expected to be competed in about two weeks, Assistant City Manager Josh Ramirez said Wednesday.
On Monday, a company began razing the building, he said.
”Considering the condition of the building, it was a safety concern,” Ramirez said. “It’s a potential hazard. We were concerned a storm could pick up projectiles.”
Last week, the city granted owner James Hess a permit to demolish the building, Fire Chief Rafael Balderas said.
“All the criteria required for demolition have been taken care of,” he said.
Since the July 22 fire, city officials have closed off Tyler Avenue’s outbound lane while fencing off the building’s charred remains.
“The traffic there bottlenecks,” Balderas said. “Now we can open up those lanes as soon as they let us know it’s safe enough to open.”
Earlier this month, fire department officials described the fire’s cause as “undetermined.”
The building’s charred remains made it impossible to determine the cause of the blaze that destroyed the 100-year-old store, Assistant Fire Chief Ruben Balboa said.
Meanwhile, federal officials along with Hess’ insurance company haven’t disclosed their findings into fire’s cause.
As part of the case, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents were called into the investigation to account for the hardware store’s firearms inventory, Balderas said.
The family-owned store dated back to the 1920s, when it served as the city’s Sears store.
”There’s mixed emotions,” Ramirez said, referring to the building’s demolition. “It’s sad to see for a building that citizens related to and shopped at for decades.”
Hours after the fire broke out, Balderas described the building as a “total loss.”
At 5:11 a.m. July 22, the fire department responded to a call reporting flames jutting out of the building’s west rooftop while heavy smoke engulfed the store, Balboa said.
Surrounding the building, fire department officials, working with the Brownsville Fire Department, staged three trucks, each shooting aerial jets of water pumping 1,000 gallons a minute to control the blaze, he said.
Hess has been unavailable for comment.
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