Jacksonville, AL – On March 18 at approximately 3:00 am, while on regular patrol, an officer from the Jacksonville Police Department noticed smoke coming from Heirloom Taco. The officer communicated this through his dispatcher and the Jacksonville Fire Department was dispatched to 111 Ladiga Street, SE to investigate. According to Jacksonville Fire Marshal, Chris Collins, firefighters observed smoke coming from the building and gained entry through the front. When they entered the building, they found heavy smoke and a high amount of heat inside. The firefighters were able to locate the origin of the fire coming from a clothing dryer that contained some towels. The fire was quickly extinguished but the interior of the business sustained a large amount of smoke and heat damage.
The building that is now known as Heirloom Taco was once a Jacksonville fire station. Fire Marshal Collins stated, “The building is solid brick, and the heat was unable to escape so it kept building up inside.” He went on to say that the cause of the fire has been ruled as accidental and that no further fire investigation would be necessary.
Heirloom Taco opened in 2018 and is a big supporter of the City of Jacksonville and its community. The owner, Aurelia Ugarte, issued a statement to the Calhoun County Journal:
“We want to start off with thanking the first responders on the scene. They went above and beyond during the call & we are just extremely thankful for that. I think for now we are still in a lot of shock. They are assessing the damage, pin pointing where the fire began, insurance is on the scene. The scariest part of all of this is with being a small business, is that we spend most of our weeks just making it day by day; and while money is a bit of a taboo thing to discuss, the finances are a little scary. While the fire has stopped us in our tracks, the bills don’t stop coming. We also want to ensure our team is taken care of. They are all incredible team members and it is not lost on us that we have a duty to make sure they’re okay too. There are too many moving parts right now to make sense of it all but with transparency being one of our strongest goals, we will be sure to update our community as we go. Ultimately, the support we have received from the community so far has been overwhelming uplifting. We know we have an uncertain road ahead of us, but our family is hopeful that there is a plan & that we will make it through this. Heirloom Taco is everything to us, and we are going to just keep fighting until we can re-open.”
They have also made a request on their official Facebook page asking for community help. They wrote, “Everything has its timing and reason, we believe that to our core. We also know first hand the power of community. Our family is humbly asking for donations.” Donations can be made through Gofundme via this link.
