Jalisco: San Juan de Dios market will remain closed after fire; no people injured

During the early hours of this Thursday, March 31, a fire occurred in the Libertad Market, better known as San Juan de Dios, in Guadalajara, Jalisco. After several hours of work, the fire was controlled without reports of injured persons.

This was detailed by the entity's governor, Enrique Alfaro, through his Twitter account, adding that more than 300 elements of Civil Protection in Guadalajara, Tonalá, Tlaquepaque, Tlajomulco and Zapopan, as well as members of the Fire Department participated in the mitigation work.

However, Alfaro reported that the San Juan de Dios station on line 2 of the Urban Electric Train will be restricted for the next few hours and until the Civil Protection Unit gives further notice. Although this closure does not affect the operation of services and can be entered through Plaza Universidad or Belisario Domínguez stations, there will also be a cut to road traffic in the area.

This market is located in the downtown area of the city of Guadalajara, on the Javier Mina No. 52 road, in the neighborhood of San Juan de Dios. The area that the authorities cordoned off to restrict access includes the Independencia road to Javier Mina Avenue.

For his part, Pablo Lemus, mayor of Guadalajara, reported that they will be given support to the market tenants and will analyze where they could be relocated, so that they can meet their expenses while they continue with the rubble removal work and the market remains closed.

He also announced that the fire started around 2:00 this Thursday and was controlled at 4:55 in the morning. So far it is in the cooling phase, so the villagers were asked not to approach the vicinity of the market.

Subsequently, Lemus Navarro took a tour of the premises of the building to assess the damage of the fire. A video shared on their social networks shows that the premises are closed, while the corridors are flooded due to the water occupied in the firefighters' control work.

The Director General of the State Civil Protection and Fire Department Jalisco, Victor Hugo Roldán, explained that the fire spread to the three main floors of the market. The most critical part was on the second level, between the fruit and vegetable area and the food area. He also reported that until that time (around 5:00 in the morning) the four levels of the property had already been controlled.

However, the causes of this fire are not yet known. The Zapopan and Guadalajara Fire Investigation Areas and the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences will be responsible for conducting the corresponding investigations and determining the origin of the incident.

Finally, it should be noted that the San Juan de Dios market has the largest roof in Latin America, which covers an area of 4,000 square meters. It was designed by architect Alejandro Zohn and was inaugurated on December 30, 1958.

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