Tucson nonprofit seeks help after ‘Market on the Move’ warehouse fire

A Tucson charity is asking for help after a fire broke out at its warehouse last week.

The 3000 Club, a nonprofit that seeks to make food accessible for those in Tucson and Phoenix, announced last Friday that its warehouse on East 22nd Street was closed due to a blaze.

The nonprofit’s director, Pam Boyer, said Thursday she’d spent much of the past two weeks speaking to police and fire marshals.

“We are rebuilding,” she said. “But it’s going to take time. We’re looking at six to eight months.”

The 3000 Club hosts its Market on the Move program, which provides gives out up to 60 pounds of food in exchange for a $10 donation, at the warehouse every Saturday.

The program operated last Saturday morning at Mount Zion Lutheran Church in Tucson and at American Legion Post 109 in the Corona de Tucson area. But Boyer said people still gathered at the warehouse out of habit.

This Saturday, Boyer said, they’re going to give out food at Tucson Village Farms, near the intersection of Campbell Road and Roger Road. She also plans to try running the program outside the warehouse this weekend.

Market on the Move serves up to 3,000 people a week throughout Southern Arizona, but she expects that number to go up as the holidays approach, grocery prices increase and more government workers are affected by the federal shutdown.

“Too many families rely on us,” Boyer said. “You can’t let something like this destroy something that a lot of people have worked for.”

Among those people, she said, are four part-time employees and about 50 volunteers, all of which were “heartbroken.”

“Be patient with them, because they’re hurt,” she said to those who plan to come to the distribution sites this weekend.

The Tucson Fire Department confirmed Friday afternoon that firefighters were called to the area around 3:15 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 1, and found flames had spread to the warehouse building after two semi-trailers filled with bottles of hand sanitizer caught fire.

Boyer, who rents three strip mall units that make up the warehouse, said one unit was badly burned and one was flooded. She estimated more than $100,000 worth of goods was destroyed. She also had plans to convert one of the affected trailers into a walk-in cooler.

The fire also killed the two warehouse cats, Murphy and Smidgen. Boyer said the running joke among volunteers and staff were that the pair of black cats were “supervisors” over a program for kids with special needs, and “Human Resources” over volunteers. They’re now buried in Boyer’s backyard.

“The kids would be at the tables, learning how to take apart computers and they would be looking over them,” she said. “Now they’re at the rainbow bridge, waiting for me when I go.”

Firefighters were able to get the fire at the building under control within an hour, according to TFD spokesperson Shelle Jackson. But because hand sanitizer is flammable, she said, it took firefighters until 10:30 a.m. to completely extinguish the blaze.

Based on security footage, which Boyer said she’s submitted as evidence to the Tucson Police Department, she believes the fire was caused intentionally. When she reviewed it, she said, she saw the fire start small, then start to escalate, before a man on a bike rode away. She said Thursday the fire is still under investigation by police and fire marshals.

“I can’t say enough about the Fire Department and the Police Department,” she said. “They’ve been incredible.”

 TFD’s Jackson said last week that firefighters were unable to determine the cause of the blaze.

As of Thursday, Boyer said, the nonprofit had been able to raise about $4,000 for recovery efforts. She requested that donations be made through its website or mailed to 4515 E. 22nd Street. “Every penny is going into rebuilding.”