(Investigation is continuing)….They have still not found a cause for the Santo Tomas fire.
The 4-alarm fire occurred Saturday night. Up to 40 vendor booths were destroyed by the fire, and others damaged by water a smoke. The County Board of Supervisors said Tuesday they were assisting up to 60 vendors, through the County Economic Development, Imperial Valley Economic Development Corporation and others to possibly obtain grants or loans that would help them get back in business. A big source of income for the swap meet vendors has historically been last minute holiday sales. The supervisors said it would be a challenge to try and salvage that this year. A full loss estimate from the fire has not been made available.