BENTONVILLE — A fire Saturday afternoon caused extensive damage to a building shared by a restaurant and a church.
The Bentonville Fire Department was notified at 12:34 p.m. of heavy smoke coming from the back of the building at 2503 S. Walton Blvd., where Maria’s Mexican Restaurant and Warehouse Church occupy adjacent spaces.
The fire spread into the attic, according to Kevin Boydston, fire battalion chief. Much of the roof over the restaurant and church was gone by the time firefighters got the fire under control around 1:05 p.m.
Nobody was injured. The cause of the fire was unknown and was under investigation late afternoon Saturday, Boydston said.
Hugo Ortega, who owns the building and the restaurant, was at the restaurant he owns in Rogers when he got the call about the fire.
“I can’t believe it,” he said.
Maria’s opened at its Bentonville location in 1999. Since then Ortega has opened Maria’s restaurants in Rogers and Fort Smith.
Henry Aroche, the manager at Maria’s, said there were eight customers in the restaurant when the fire was reported.
“Somebody came in and said the place was on fire,” Aroche said. “We thought she was just joking around.”
Passersby made numerous calls to 911 about the fire, Boydston said.
Firefighters found the church unoccupied at the time of the fire, Boydston said. The church pastor couldn’t be reached for comment