Santa Maria firefighters were investigating the cause of a two-alarm structure fire that burned a popular restaurant and a furniture store Thursday morning.
At approximately 6 a.m., personnel from the Santa Maria Fire Department and Santa Maria Police Department responded to the 700 block of South Broadway and found a fire in an alley behind Sergio’s Furniture building, Fire Chief Leonard Champion said.
Crews called a second alarm for the structure fire at 708 S. Broadway, bringing in additional resources from Santa Barbara County, SLO County Cal Fire, and Five Cities Fire Authority. Firefighters “ended up going to a defensive mode because of some partial structural collapse that was reported,” Champion said.