SAN ANTONIO – Fire investigators confirmed Wednesday the 1 a.m. fire at a South Side Church's Chicken was set intentionally.
The work day was a strange one for a group of employees at the chicken shop located at 1003 SE Military Drive. Instead of serving chicken, they cleaned burned boxes and debris out of their charred workplace.
"All I saw was a wooden door and on the other side it was burned," said German Martinez, who works at a business next door.
Martinez couldn't believe the building went up in flames.
"I was kind of mad, because I always used to go next door for lunch," Martinez said.
When fire crews got to the burning building, they found a few red flags that led them to believe the fire may have been set intentionally. Further investigation proved that they were right. The fire was ruled arson, but investigators are still sorting out the details and will continue to pore over evidence.
Meanwhile, cleanup at the burned building continues. Thankfully, no one was inside when it caught fire, and no one was injured, but Martinez feels bad for the owner, who is dealing with $100,000 in damage.
"It's going to be people doing hard work just to repair it back," he said.
He hopes they find out who started the fire and caused such a mess.