Authorities are investigating after a fire destroyed a Boost Mobile store in southwest Miami-Dade Friday morning.
The fire ripped through the store on SW 288th Street, and caused serious smoke and water damage to a barbershop next door.
All of the merchandise inside the store was destroyed. Owner Andy Orellana said of all the stores he owns, this one was special.
"It was the first store that we had, it was like four years ago when we started, but everything is done," he said.
According to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, the fire started a little after 5:30 a.m. and quickly engulfed the store.
Orellana’s wife took the loss a lot harder than he did.
"My wife started crying, I’m less - you know - about it," he said. "But she was crying when she got here."
"The Boost is totally gone, I haven’t been able to get into my business," Barber shop owner Michael Crowe said. "There’s obviously smoke and water damage that you can see from the outside."
Crowe said it's definitely not the way he wants to start his new year in business.
“It’s holiday season, you’re trying to have it joyful," he said. "We’re going to open up today, we’ve been closed the last two days.”
As far as a cause, Crowe said fire investigators are looking into possible arson.
"They said they might have seen a car pull up that I might have been some type of arson," he said.
Orellana said a brick was found inside his store by fire fighters.
Like Orellana, Crowe has insurance and wants to get things fixed and his business open again soon.
“You just have to deal with it, hopefully the Boost will open back up," Crowe said. "Hopefully I’ll be operational again and move on, you can’t stop living because it happened."
