Update: A Wednesday Alpine Police Department news release — sent out after The Big Bend Sentinel Deadline — stated: “Investigation by the Alpine Police Department and the State Fire Marshal’s Office declared the cause of the fire as “undetermined.”
ALPINE — A vibrant hub of local businesses in Downtown Alpine all housed within the same historic structure were destroyed in a catastrophic fire last weekend. The loss of a cooperative art gallery, bakery and cafe, hair salon, antique shop, and jewelry store represents to locals the significant loss of not only personal property, but livelihoods and identities.
“The scope of it and the devastation of it is completely overwhelming,” said the building’s owner, Bill Ivey, who leased spaces to several vendors and maintained an office in the building. “We lost so much.”
The one-story building — white with awnings and large storefront windows — that went up in flames Sunday night stretched nearly an entire block, from 109 to 115 West Holland Avenue. It was subdivided to include Gallery on the Square, Judy’s Bread and Breakfast, Eva’s Salon, La Azteca, and Vintage Antiques and Snazzy Things, all of which were completely lost in the fire.
“As a business owner, it’s a very difficult thing to deal with when all of a sudden, without any warning, you can’t get into your business and it’s all gone,” said David Busey, the owner of La Azteca jewelry shop. “Everything you’ve done, that I’ve done for 18 years is gone. A lot of people are going through that right now.”
The cause of the fire has yet to be determined and is being investigated by fire marshals, said Alpine Volunteer Fire Department Chief Andrew Pierce. Pierce said the fire department is continually monitoring the site, but the fire is not at risk of spreading and is fully contained. There are plans to bring in some heavy equipment to cool down the hot rubble to put a stop to any flare-ups within the week, he said.
Firefighters were dispatched to 115 West Holland Avenue, the Gallery on the Square, on Sunday at 3:45 p.m. following the report of a fire in the group of commercial buildings, Pierce said.
Gallery foreman Gregory Tegarden told The Big Bend Sentinel his wife Amanda Calhoun, the gallery director, received a call from the artist who was working at the gallery on Sunday afternoon. Yosdy Valdivia, an artist from Presidio-Ojinaga, notified them that there was smoke coming in from the back of the gallery. Tegarden and Calhoun advised Valdivia to call 911 and exit the premises.
The couple then headed to the building, arriving shortly before firefighters. Tegarden and Calhoun helped Valdivia out of the gallery, bringing along a couple of her paintings before Tegarden went behind the building to see what was going on, he said.
He said he witnessed the vent hood of Judy’s Bread and Breakfast — located on the cafe’s roof — emitting flames and a bystander attempting to quell the fire with a water hose. (Pierce declined to specify where the fire started, citing the ongoing investigation.)
Tegarden sat across the street from the building as the fire department arrived and began fire suppression techniques, joined by several business owners as they became aware of the fire. He estimated that by 4:20 p.m. most of the fire appeared to be extinguished and firefighters brought in a fan to extract smoke from the gallery.
For around an hour to an hour and a half, things seemed to calm down, prompting business owners to begin assessing potential damage to their buildings, but by around 6 p.m. the entire structure went up in flames. By 7 p.m., it was totally engulfed by the fire.
Pierce said firefighters experienced difficulties reaching the fire due to its location and the layout of the building, which caused the delay. He said firefighters never left the scene and more personnel were called in.
Jan Anderson, owner of Vintage Antiques and Snazzy Things, said she was able to save some items from her store, but once the fire began fully raging, it took down the structure quickly. “It went from dark smoke and a little bit of fire here and there in the cafe to full flame everywhere in about five or six minutes. It was incredible,” Anderson said. “I just sat down and started shaking. I was devastated, that’s the only words I can use — empty and devastated.”
Pierce confirmed that once the structure’s singular roof caught fire the building declined rapidly. “At a certain point, it progressed past the point of being able to save,” Pierce said. “We called the Mayday to evacuate all of our personnel as well as evacuate any civilians within the immediate area.”
Four firefighters were injured on the scene, two with overexertion and smoke inhalation, one with an ankle injury and one with a concussion after the building blew up in front of them, Pierce said. Three were transported to the hospital and released shortly after, he said.
As far as the loss of the building and its contents are concerned, Ivey said he found out on Sunday that he did not have insurance on the building and that each business owner was responsible for insuring the contents of their space. The Gallery on the Square told The Sentinel they did not insure the contents of their space. Others did not wish their insured status to be shared publicly.
The scorched remnants of the building will be closed off — inaccessible to all business owners and the public — until the fire marshal investigation is complete, which could be as early as Thursday, Pierce said. Artist John Davis approached first responders on Monday as they were guarding the building’s wreckage to ask if they were able to salvage any of his artwork that was on display in the front window of Gallery on the Square. “It’s a shame. It hurts me because I know this is people’s belongings that are sitting here and just getting destroyed. But unfortunately, it’s a hands-tied situation,” Pierce told The Sentinel.
Before Vintage Antiques and Snazzy Things took its place, Ivey ran Ivey’s Emporium out of the space, a gallery and gift shop. Several “historic fixtures from all over West Texas” that the Iveys still stored there were likely lost in the fire, he said, as were personal items of value.
Ivey said, for now, he and his family are “taking it day by day,” coming to terms with the loss of such a meaningful place where his boys grew up. He said they are eager to assess the damage on the ground and eventually organize clean-up efforts. The concept of rebuilding the historic structure is further complicated by the fact that the building was not insured, he said, and at this time he is not sure if a rebuild is possible. “We really and truly don’t know what’s going to happen at this point,” Ivey said.
In 2000 when Ivey purchased the historic structure, Downtown Alpine was “dead,” he said, featuring mostly empty, boarded-up buildings. He wanted to revitalize the downtown shopping district and “held out for the right businesses” to find to move into the shops. All of that hard work and resulting liveliness was lost in a matter of hours on Sunday night, Ivey said.
“Downtown Alpine was so wonderful with the galleries and bakery and everything that was going on and nice shops. It looked good,” Ivey said. “It just breaks my heart and sickens me to see that go away.”
Busey said the loss of the Holland Avenue businesses in the fire will “change the whole attraction of Alpine,” because the area was the center of visitor attractions, right along Mural Alley.
The 1911-built adobe and brick building previously served as Forcheimer’s Dry Goods and Morrison’s Variety Store. Pierce said the mainstay structure burning down is a loss for the entire Alpine community. “Just seeing this building this way, this historic part of Alpine, seeing the tree behind it made a pit drop in my stomach,” Pierce said.
The owner of Eva’s Salon — Ivey’s longest-running tenant, Eva Lucrecia Olivas — began sobbing the morning after the fire as she took in the site of all that remained of the business she spent over two decades cultivating: piles of smoldering rubble. Olivas attempted to save items in her salon before the fire swallowed up the entire structure but wasn’t able to grab much and wound up in the hospital Sunday evening for minor smoke inhalation.
“It’s heartbreaking to see Eva lose everything that she’s poured her heart into,” said hairstylist Carly Bonsell. “Not only was it her livelihood, but she loved that place. It’s hard to watch her lose something that’s so important to her.”
“Her salon meant everything to her and to her family,” said Olivas’ daughter Eva Calderon. “My mother is completely devastated and in shock by the loss of her salon.”
Olivas is from Ojinaga and moved to Alpine in the ‘90s, where she went on to earn her American citizenship and open a salon in 2001. Calderon said being a business owner gave her mom the financial independence she needed to raise two children and allowed her to give back to the community. Olivas opened up the space for fundraisers and concerts, and let her daughter paint colorful murals in the prominent storefront windows.
Calderon said her mom’s generosity extends to her clients, many of whom are senior citizens unable to care for themselves who she sees on a weekly basis. Olivas has even done clients’ hair when they pass away in preparation for their funerals.
Calderon said her mother has been offered positions at other local salons in the wake of the fire, and a friend plans to set up a bank account to receive donations specifically for Olivas. For now, the family is still processing the immense loss of the salon and its contents. “So many irreplaceable treasures, family items and memories have been taken away from us,” Calderon said. “[My mom] is trying to take one day at a time right now. She was hoping to retire soon and losing everything so brutally has made it difficult to know what the next step is.”
Anderson, a 78-year-old retired teacher and coach, took over Vintage Antiques and Snazzy Things from its previous owners during the pandemic. She said, at first, she saw the gig as a way to stay busy in her retirement, but it slowly grew to mean more to her, and without it there would be a “huge hole” in her life.
“The more I was there, the more I met people, the more emotionally involved I got with the place,” Anderson said. “The people coming in and out and visiting with us, it just became a major part of my life.”
She said the shop, which runs on consignment, had around 20 active vendors before the fire. Anderson said she plans to fall back on retirement funds given the unforeseen destruction of her business but expressed concern over what a loss of income could mean for her shop neighbors. “The people on either side of me, that was their livelihood,” Anderson said. “What are they going to do? My heart just breaks for them.”
Alpine Historical Society, a local nonprofit organization, announced plans on Monday to set up a bank account, under its stewardship, for affected businesses and their employees to receive donations for recovery efforts. “The initial focus of this fund will be to assist the affected businesses in relocating and reestablishing operations quickly in nearby facilities and restore income for those affected,” the organization wrote in a press release. “Funds will be directed to those businesses that secure new locations, ensuring they can resume serving our community without undue delay.”
Tegarden said the 27-member artist co-op that makes up the Big Bend Arts Council, which operated Gallery on the Square, is “very positive about getting back together and not letting the BBAC community die from this.” “The gallery’s definitely gone, but [we’re] wanting to establish another place of business so cooperative members can make money and get something going,” Tegarden said.
Jean Cargo, a local artist who has been a member of the co-op for five years and lost artwork in the fire, said her main takeaway from the tragic event was that no one was injured. “I can always do more artwork,” Cargo said.
All of the artwork was able to be removed from Catchlight Gallery, located west of the burned-down building, on Sunday evening. Heidi Wassermann offered to store works in her gallery nearby, and everyone from visitors staying at The Holland Hotel to Sheriff Ronnie Dodson helped rescue art from the at-risk building. Catchlight Gallery — now the only remaining commercial business on the block — suffered minor water and smoke damage.
The building directly east of the devastation, currently the Big Bend Regional Hospital District, was built in 1904 and once housed the First National Bank. It was saved due to a fire break between the buildings — which was installed after a 1907 fire and saved the building once before in a 1911 fire — with only visible water stains on floors and ceilings and a minor smokey smell, said Executive Director J.D. Newsom. Newsom said he met with a structural engineer who confirmed there was no major damage to the organization’s building.
Pierce said he is grateful for the community support, including the donations of food and water for first responders, and for the work of the Alpine, Marfa, Fort Davis, Marathon and Terlingua fire departments and the Texas A&M Forest Service. “It’s a hard loss, but I’m extremely proud of the work that my guys and the surrounding departments did, as well as the support for our injured firefighters,” Pierce said.
To donate to the Alpine Historical Society recovery fund, visit their Facebook Page Historic Alpine. To learn more about a potential fundraiser specifically for Eva’s Salon, visit their Facebook Page EVA’S SALON.