Firefighters at scene of Jefferson Road restaurant fire

Photos by Jeff Snowden

Firefighters Thursday afternoon remain on the scene of a fire off Jefferson Road.

The public was notified about the fire by an Nixle alert issued by the police department at 3:54 p.m. warning that the roadway had been shut down,

A second alert was issued at 5:43 p.m, to let the public know that the road was reopened for traffic.

According to witnesses, the fire appeared to do significant damage to Taqueria Juaritos, and to a lesser extent an adjacent convenience store.

All persons inside the businesses were said to have safety gotten out.

A woman who was in Taqueria Juaritos gave the following account in a Facebook post:

“So I was inside eating when this happened,”the woman said. “At first I assumed it was just a trashcan in the bathroom that was on fire, but smoke very quickly started coming out of the vents and by the time we all got outside there was so much smoke. So glad everyone got out safely, but very sad about one of our favorite eateries in town.”

This is a developing story that will be updated as more information is available.