A blaze that ignited just after midnight Friday morning at Citti’s Florist in Santa Clara is being tagged as suspicious, fire department officials said.
The fire started in the store’s parking lot, in between a Citti’s delivery van and the flower shop itself, said Battalion Chief Mike Dellamaggiore, of the Santa Clara City Fire Department.
Two gasoline containers were recovered from the scene but the cause of the fire is still unknown, Dellamaggiore said.
“No cause has been determined, but (the gas containers) were involved,” he said.
The Santa Clara flower shop has been a fixture in the city for more than 45 years, said Adrianna Citti, one of the owners of Citti’s Florist.
“It was the first store we owned,” she said. “The containers were not ours, we don’t know how they got there.”
Although officials have yet to announce the cause of the blaze, Citti said that investigators do not think it occurred from mechanical or electrical means.
“They don’t think (the fire) came from natural causes, but they don’t know how it happened,” she said.
Crews arrived on the scene around 12:45 a.m. and battled the fire for roughly 40 minutes before it was contained. The flower shop sustained significant damage and a neighboring apartment complex was briefly evacuated but no damage was reported, Dellamaggiore said.
Citti affirmed that the remaining two locations, in Campbell and San Jose, are more that able to provide enough flowers for all the events they have planned for this weekend.
Santa Clara customers should contact the Campbell store for questions regarding their orders.
Citti’s Florist is a family owned business with roots planted in Santa Clara County for more than 47 years.
