DALLAS — Exotic animals were killed in a fire at a northwest Dallas shopping center Friday morning, but no people were injured, officials said.
It wasn’t yet known what type of animals died in the fire, or how many.
Officials had responded shortly after 9 a.m. to a two-alarm fire at the Plaza Latina shopping center, located at 11200 Harry Hines Boulevard.
WFAA chopper footage showed heavy smoke coming from the shopping center with a portion of the roof collapsed and multiple fire trucks and firefighters responding.
Dallas Fire-Rescue says it was unclear how many people were in the shopping center when the fire started, but there haven’t been any injuries reported.
“When firefighters arrived at the large one-story commercial occupancy, they were met with heavy smoke and fire conditions,” Dallas Fire-Rescue said. “Recognizing that suppression efforts would be defensive early on, a second-alarm response was immediately requested; which resulted in approximately 40-45 firefighters on scene to mitigate the situation, using hand lines and three ladder pipes to surround and drown the fire from all sides.”
The building housed multiple small businesses, one of which sold exotic animals, a “number of which died” during the fire, according to Dallas Fire-Rescue. Dallas Animal Control was also called to help respond to the fire.
A Facebook page for Plaza Latina indicates it’s usually open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday and Thursday and from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday-Sunday.
The fire was declared extinguished about two hours after it started at 11:03 a.m., and the cause of the fire is under investigation, according to Dallas Fire-Rescue.
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