St. Landry Parish fire marshals are investigating a blaze that started on Wednesday afternoon on Bertrand Road in Opelousas and took hours to put out.
According to Adrian Artique, a resident in Opelousas, the fire started suddenly and started spreading near several neighbors' homes.
"I don't know exactly what happened I was passing by going back to work and I seen this empty lot was on fire," Artique said. "My brother was in this yard with a water hose and I went back to the house...and the wind was all blowing that way it, went up pretty quick."
Khouri Frisch said she lives in Plaisance and is best friends with the owners of Dave's Tire Services, LLC, the business firefighters said went up into flames.
"I started crying," Frisch said. "She [Dawn Stanford] was crying on the phone...We're a very close-knit family, so when you find out something catastrophic like this happens, she didn't know if her house was taken care of, her husband didn't have his phone at the time."
Officials said there are no injuries or deaths reported as a result of the fire, but they are still monitoring hot spots and investigating what started the burn.
"They lost pretty much all of their inventory," Frisch said. "They still have some things, but not like what they had before."
