3-alarm fire burns businesses at Katy shopping center

KATY, Texas – Business owners are trying to clean up, after a three-alarm fire ripped through a Katy shopping center Wednesday night.

The fire started at around 10:30pm off the Katy Freeway, near Promenade Blvd.

When fire crews arrived they saw heavy smoke and flames coming from the shopping center. It took them about two and a half hours to get the fire out. Paramedics treated a few firefighters at the scene for heat exhaustion.

The shopping center included two auto shops, a tattoo parlor and a silk screening company. Harris County Hazmat crews also responded to the scene to monitor chemicals in the silk screening shop. Officials eventually determined that there was no danger of chemicals being released on the ground or in the air.

Bianca Osborne, manager at Kool Karz, woke up Thursday morning to several missed calls and headed right to the scene. "When I pulled up it was way worse than I thought," Osborne said.

She says the owner of Kool Karz has had the business for more than a decade. Several cars inside were destroyed by the flames. "It's hard not to break down and cry.," Osborne said. "The owner basically built an empire here and he had to watch it burn down to the ground."

A few stores down, Drew Wexelberg owns a tattoo parlor. It was open Wednesday night when the fire started. Wexelberg smelled the smoke and called 911. "My brand new business that I just spent all my money on looks like it is pretty much destroyed," Wexelberg said.

He just opened up his shop in October.

Arson investigators were out at the scene all Thursday morning. At this point they do not believe the fire was intentionally set. They will be back on the scene in a couple of days to determine the exact cause of the fire.