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fire at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.
Fire crews still on scene
monitoring the site on Atlantic.
where businesses like King of the Sea,
Tshirt Factory and the Maple Tr,
Pancake and Waffle House once s.
All three severely damaged and
destroyed in the fire. Alex
Little Hales is live at the
ocean front now with more Alex.
Hey Ashley, we have really seen
this corner in Atlantic and 27t.
This corner change a lot over
the last couple of hours.
We've seen fire crews leave,
come back multiple times over
the course of the morning trying
to put out these hotspots.
I'm going to direct my photograr
just over my left shoulder.
That corner right at 27th
and Atlantic Street.
That is where firefighters
have doused water to try and.
Tamp down the smoke that they
have seen throughout the mornin.
Now, there have been a lot of
pedestrians here walking along
the oceanfront this morning anda
lot of them are actually coming
out and seeing this debris for
the second time and they still
can't believe the shock from whn
they first saw it last night.
A new day shines light onto a
street corner that's now empty.
They had one truck going,
and I'm like, you know what?
They don't have it under control. I'm like,
never dream something like
this would happen down here.
And it took out the whole block.
It took out the whole block. Des
and the smell of smoke greet the oceanfronts,
earliest risers on Atlantic Ave. I got
to go get my car. So this whole street
was shut off so you couldn't get access.
And now to see it gone, it's just, you know.
Mind blowing, it's just More thn
70 firefighters battled Tuesday
night's three alarm fire,
a blaze that burned down three
businesses at the corner of 27t.
at the heart of the oceanfront district.
You couldn't stand outside.
I mean, I went outside just for
a few minutes and it was like
smoky and like it, you know,
went right into your clothes and
you couldn't be outside. And afr
an hours long response, over 12 hours.
Crews still work. Yeah,
almost 14 hours to put out the hotspots.
Still smoking Wednesday morning.
Broken wood and rubble are now l
that's left of the Tshirt Factoy
and two longtime restaurants,
King of the Sea and Maple Tree Pancake House.
I bought a shirt the other day.
I had it, had it printed
the day before yesterday,
and people super friendly in the
store and everything like that.
And the restaurant was the same.
We just ate there Monday night, right?
Doing all right, just like I sa,
used to come to work.
And then seeing the building.
After almost 4 decades cooking
at the Maple Tree Pancake House,
Marcus Jordan isn't sure what he'll do next.
All things considered,
he says he can still find something to
keep his spirits high. Well, I ,
you got to be positive,
you know, long as everybody
back live here in the
oceanfront district again,
we have seen crews leave and come back.
The Virginia Beach Fire Departmt
Twitter has tweeted that they do
want people to stay outside of s
corridor between 25th to 28th streets
because they just do not know wt
kind of activity will be around
here today live in Virginia Bea.
I'm Alex Little Hales for 13 News Now.
Devastating
to see the aftermath of that fi.
Alex, thank you. And more than 5
firefighters helped put it out.
13 News Now also spoke with
the Virginia Beach Deputy Fire
Marshall about the response.
We turn now to Ants Barako,
she continues.
Our team coverage live at the
oceanfront and and the building
structure for the Tshirt factory also
posed a big challenge for fire crews.
Yeah, Ashley Virginia Beach Depy
Fire Marshall Jim Engle Do sayse
building where the fire happened
was more than 60 years old.
He said this older structure mat
a bit of a challenge for firefighters
to tackle the fire, Engle Do sa,
because owners renovated the business
several times over the years.
It actually has multiple ceilin,
from the addons to the structur.
This created layers for fire crs
to have to demolish in order to
get to the heart of the fire.
Firefighters could not work diry
on top of the roof as the buildg
was in danger of collapsing,
so crews had to fight the fire from outside,
which took much longer to get d.
We say all the time we're we're chasing
this fire because it's spreadin,
but we can't tell where it's
going because we can't really s.
Where it's going.
So it's a it's a very difficult
type of fire to fight.
That's why the firefighters,
you know, worked really hard.
And Engle Do says this hot weather also posed
another challenge to these firefighters.
That's why they had to call in
those second and third alarms,
mainly because they had to give those
crews some rest to rotate as thy
continued to battle that fire, he said.
The cause of the fire is still
under investigation at this tim,
but he says his team.
Has a lot more work to do.
Reporting live in Virginia Beac,
I'm Ants Barack.
Over 13 news now, right?
And thanks
for that report. And we did lean
that one firefighter got minor s
last night during their respons.
We'll stay on top of this story
throughout the day, on air and online.
Make sure to download the 13 News Now app.
And remember, you can get our
coverage around the clock on ouw
streaming service, 13 News Now .