Three fire departments battle Wednesday structure fire

A fire that broke out at the intersection of 5th and Otero streets in Socorro today required the mutual aid of the Lemitar/Midway and San Antonio fire departments to bring it under control.

According to Socorro Fire Department Chief Lawrence Baca, firefighters have responded to the location to battle a fire for the third time.

“It’s these conjoining buildings right here; they are always a problem,” Daniel Pacheco, SFD Shift Captain, said.

Pacheco said that he believed the fire was caused by homeless individuals squatting in the buildings and that they had just put out a fire at that same location last month.

Fire Chief Lawrence Baca said he had just contacted the owner, who told him he had just spent $5,000 boarding up and securing the buildings, and he couldn’t keep people out.

“We haven’t done our inspection yet because it’s an unstable environment right now; we’ll do our final walk-throughs when the fire is completely out. Hopefully, we don’t come across anybody, but at this point, it was fully involved, and there was no reason for us to go inside.” Pacheco said.

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