Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Firefighters were still on the scene late this morning. (Photo by D'Nieka Hartsfield)
link Staff photo: D'Nieka Hartsfield A Clovis Fire Department spokesman said the fire had been extinguished by late afternoon but smoldering was expected to continue into Saturday morning.
Staff writer
The former Guadalajara restaurant building, a landmark for decades on L. Casillas Boulevard in west Clovis near the railroad tracks, was destroyed in a fire Friday morning.
Firefighters were called to the blaze about 7:45 a.m. Flames could still be seen at 10 a.m. and firefighters were expected to remain on the scene throughout the night.
Officials did not immediately know a cause for the fire, but the state fire marshal’s office was on the scene Friday afternoon.
A Clovis Fire Department spokesman said the fire had been extinguished by late afternoon but smoldering was expected to continue into Saturday morning.
Paul Cordova, an electrical inspector called to help investigate the cause of the fire, said he arrived about 8:10 a.m. and the building was already full of smoke and flames.
“I called (his boss) and told him, ‘It’s gone. There’s no saving it,’” he said.
Cordova said he talked with firefighters who told him they were initially unable to get inside the building.
“They just had to control the outside to make sure it won’t spread. They couldn’t send anybody in; it was too (dangerous),” he said.
Malinda Hancock, who lives nearby on Davis Street, said she called 911 when she saw fire coming out the back window of the building about 7:45 a.m.
She said firefighters asked her to evacuate her home with her dogs and they watched the building burn from a nearby parking lot.
Nearby structures did not appear to be damaged.
Librado Casillas, the man for whom the street is also named, first built apartments at the site in the 1940s, said Christy Mendoza, Casillas’ granddaughter.
He added a grocery store in 1945 and ultimately converted the apartments to the restaurant in 1951, Mendoza said.
The family owned the restaurant until 2006 when it closed.
Mendoza said she did not know who owns the building now, but said it had been abandoned.
She and Cordova said area residents had recently noticed transients in and around the building.
