After fire, Grocery Outlet thanks first responders at grand opening

Photo by Alex Dominguez

DOWNEY - After a Fourth of July weekend fire resulted in thousands of dollars in damages, Downey Grocery Outlet reopened on Friday after an over two-week closure.

On the afternoon of July 2, a tree behind the Grocery Outlet store located at 8320 Firestone Blvd. caught fire and quickly spread to the store’s dumpsters, forklift, and roof.

“It started off as a palm tree fire, so it was called in as so, but it quickly turned into Armageddon,” said store owner Victor Valencia.

The suspected cause of the fire seems to be an illegal firework. While there were no injuries reported, Valencia says that there was easily over $100,000 in damages, and a total loss of many of the store’s merchandise.

“There was no power for almost two weeks, so no power meant we had to throw away all the perishable stuff,” said Valencia.

Downey first responders arrived on scene quickly and were able to knock down the fire.

At a grand reopening ceremony Saturday, Valencia and his employees thanked and honored both Downey Fire and Police departments, presenting each with a plaque.

“Without them, I don’t think we’d have a store,” said Valencia. “[The fire] would’ve gotten really bad. I think us, Dollar Tree, would've been a total loss.

“We’re a family-owned business… this is our livelihood; it would’ve been gone in an instant. Because of that, we really wanted to do something special for them and honor them. I just don’t know how much they get as far as being recognized, so we wanted to make sure we do something special for them.”

Fire Captain Renick Sampson said seeing the business open and running was “huge for us.”

“We’re honored to come out and to see the fruits of our labor, to get a business back up and running that the community relies on quick, and to have minimal amount of damage and to get back up and running is awesome,” said Sampson. “It’s great to see.”