Spartanburg Martial Arts building catches fire

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (WSPA) – Crews battled a fire at the Spartanburg Martial Arts facility Tuesday afternoon in Spartanburg County.

The fire broke out around 12:20 p.m. at the business on East Blackstock Road.

Firefighters from Westview-Fairforest Fire Department said they believe the fire began at the back of the building, possibly in a small closet.

“After a couple of the crews got here and initiated fire attack, we had to initially start with a defensive operation utilizing the aerial waterways on our ladder trucks,” said Darby Rollins, Westview-Fairforest Fire Department Captain. “Once we started to get a little more control of the fire we were able to put more firemen inside of the building and actual extinguish a majority of the flames.”

According to Rick Lee, the owner of SMA, only a handful of his employees were inside when the fire broke out. He said there were no kids present.

“I’m just glad that it didn’t happen during summer camp and there weren’t a bunch of kids in there,” said Lee. “Buildings are replaceable, people aren’t.”

The program has about 500 kids enrolled, one of them being 7-year-old Luna Yates who said she’s been doing martial arts for 3 years.

“I really like doing the training and stuff. Probably kicking the dummies [is my favorite part], it’s really fun,” said Yates.

Yates said she’ll continue to practice martial arts even though her practice facility is gone. But for the 150 kids who attend SMA’s after-school program, that program no longer exists as of now.

Lee said he made call after call Tuesday afternoon letting them know SMA would not be able to pick up kids from all around the district in its bus as it normally does because of the fire.

The exact cause of the fire is still unknown at this time.

East Blackstock Road was closed while crews responded to the fire.

The roads reopened shortly after 5pm.

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