White Center community supporting businesses destroyed by fire

WHITE CENTER, Wash. - One day after a fire destroyed a huge part of downtown White Center, the community is already showing support in so many different ways.

Early Monday morning, a fire ripped through several businesses along 16th Avenue Southwest in downtown White Center.

On Tuesday, the owners of La Tipica Oaxaqueña say they only had an hour to clear out their shop.

"We got what we could out," said Magali Reyes. "It’s locked. It’s marked unsafe now. We can’t go back in there," she added.

Reyes says her Aunt owned the shop for about a year. She says while it’s hard to clear out a year’s worth of hard work in about an hour, they had help from other business owners to salvage what they could.

"I did cry. Yeah, it’s very emotional. The support is definitely there," said Reyes.

But the support is coming from more than just other business owners, but the community too. Reyes says with her family's entire shop laying out on the sidewalk people started shopping right from the street.

She says they sold hundreds of dollars worth of items in just a few hours. 

People are also donating money to the businesses impacted by the blaze.

"We still break into tears easily especially with the outpouring of support," said Michael Farrar.

Farrar is one of the owners of the Lumber Yard Bar. The fire also destroyed his business.

But amazingly, in less than 2 days, the community donated more than $100k toward their bar through a GoFundMe.

Several other shops say they have received thousands in donations through GoFundMe as well.

"Everyone is rooting for all of these businesses to come back, come back stronger than ever," said Alex Tran a member of the White Center community.

Officials said nobody was hurt in the fire.

Investigators say the fire was an accident and not caused by fireworks.

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