Axarquía

Bar fire causes evacuation in Torre del Mar, owner suspects burglary

By Euro Weekly News Media • Published: 26 May 2016 • 16:30

UPDATE:

A FIRE at Bar Sweet in Torre del Mar in the early hours of Thursday morning (May 27) which destroyed the premises and forced a dozen residents of the block of flats above to leave their homes as a precaution, could have been started by burglars, the owner has said.

The bar, on Calle Las Yucas, caught fire at about 4.55am and emergency services sent to the scene decided to evacuate the building above due to the amount of smoke.

Owner Efren Reyero, quite a well-known young man who works with the Torre del Mar Tourism department, has in the past played football at a professional level and gained relative popularity on a Spanish TV show in 2008, said the next day that he was very upset by the incident but relieved that nobody was injured.

The bar only opened on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, Reyero said, so he was at home in bed when he was called to inform him of the fire.

However he commented that the cash register, a laptop computer and other items of value had not appeared amongst the ashes, leading him to suspect that the bar was actually burgled and the culprits started the fire on their way out to remove their traces.

This suspicion, the owner claimed, is backed up by the fact that when the fire brigade arrived they found the back door had been forced open.

Luckily, Reyero said, the bar was insured so he hopes to receive some compensation to carry out repairs and get the bar up and running again as soon as possible.

A DOZEN people had to be evacuated from a building in Torre del Mar in the early hours of Thursday morning (May 26) when a fire was declared in a ground-floor bar.

The fire broke out at 4.55am in a car on Calle Yucas, 112 Emergency Services Andalucia reported, and the fire brigade and Local and National Police officers were sent to the scene.

Due to thick smoke, officers decided to evacuate the floor above the bar as a precaution, but the residents were able to return home once the fire was out, and luckily nobody was injured.