An early morning blaze Thursday at Sunshine Supermarket took firefighters about three hours to contain and caused the roof of the store’s warehouse to collapse.
According to St. Croix Fire Chief Roberto Santos, firefighters received a report of a fire at the store at about 2 a.m. Thursday. When five units from Grove Place, Frederiksted and Peter's Rest arrived, flames were visible from the southeast corner of the building.
The fire was controlled by 20 firefighters at about 5:15 a.m., Santos said.
"The fire was contained to the warehouse area, which sustained substantial damage because part of the roof collapsed due to the intensity of the fire," Santos said. He added that no injuries were reported to either firefighters or civilians.
Fire Service arson investigators along with V.I. Police Department forensic investigators were at the store Thursday afternoon trying to determine the cause of the blaze.
"It’s an ongoing investigation. We have not yet determined the cause of the fire," Santos said. He said he could not speculate as to whether arson was suspected.
The supermarket’s phone number was busy throughout Thursday afternoon and calls to Sunshine Mall owner Hatim Yusuf were not returned.
Sunshine Mall is anchored by a Kmart store on one end and the supermarket on the other, with a mix of vacant and leased stores in between. Last month, Sunshine Supermarket was confronted by the opening of a $4 million Plaza Extra supermarket just a few miles down the road.
