Crews monitoring deadly Dover grocery store fire, family unsure of future

DOVER, Fla. (WFLA) — A family is mulling over the future of its business after a fire Sunday afternoon killed one person and sent a firefighter to the hospital .

On Monday morning, crews were still mopping up hot spots and surveying the smoldering remains of the building — debris and rubble soaked in water.

Calls to the Hillsborough County Fire Rescue came in around 4:45 p.m. on Sunday for a blaze at a Mexican American grocery store off Sydney Dover Road.

“I was here early. I left, like at 4 p.m.,” said Store Manager Abdalkarim Hijaz. “I went to the Y.M.C.A., grabbed my kids, sent them home. When I’m home, one of the employees called me — ‘There’s a fire in the store.'”

Once firefighters got inside the store, they found a person inside who had died in the fire. Hijaz said that person was a Guatemalan employee at the store and a hardworking man.

“He’s a nice guy,” said Hijaz. “What can you do?”

One firefighter was sent to the hospital with heat exhaustion but was stable.

Officials said the building was fully engulfed in flames when they arrived, so crews had to take a defensive approach and battle the fire from outside the store.

“Water supply has been a little bit of an issue,” said Section Chief Rob Herrin. “There’s no hydrants out here. So, we’ve been using water tankers that deliver 3,500 gallons of capacity to feed our engines and our aerial devices.”

Unfortunately, all the rain on Sunday night had the opposite of the desired effect to help put out the fire.

“We can operate in lightning on ground,” Herrin explained. “But, we’d like to get vertical of this and get above it with that water on it, but just haven’t been able to do it. This weather is not cooperating for that operation.”

As for the owner and his family’s plans for the store — they’re up in the air.

“When your business blows up, or fire, you don’t think a lot, you act crazy,” Hijaz said. “You lose your business, your job.”

Officials are still investigating the cause of the fire.

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