The Burrito Loco, formerly The Hot Tamale, at South of the Border burned down last night.
At this time, the cause of the fire is unknown.
The fire was discovered about 9:15 p.m. by South of the Border security. South of the Border emergency staff then began putting out the fire themselves almost containing it while they called 9-1-1 to send County fire crews, according to owner Ryan Schafer, who was out-of-town at the time of the incident.
South of the Border staff was instructed by a fireman on the scene to let county fire crews handle the situation which then took an additional 10-15 minutes to get going, Schafer said. By then, the fire had flared back up.
Dillon County Fire Station 4, Dillon County Fire Station 1, the Rowland Fire Department, Dillon County EMS, and other first responders were on the scene about 2 hours.
At about 2:30 a.m., the fire caught back again destroying the remaining structure.
South of the Border had recently gotten a renter ready to occupy the building, but had not yet signed a lease, making the fire more unfortunate. South of the Border is self-insured, which means that they don’t have an insurance policy and fund property losses out of their own cash reserves.
Pictured: The state of the building is shown at 11 p.m. when the fire was put out and after it caught fire again at 2:30 a.m.
