The Tucson Fire Department responded to a 3-alarm fire Tuesday afternoon at a furniture store just south of the UA campus. The fire, reported at 5:16 p.m., heavily damaged Aqui Esta, 228 S. Park Avenue, a furniture store in Tucson’s Lost Barrio district. It was declared contained at 6:09 p.m., according to Tucson Fire Department Public Information Officer Trish Tracy.

Tracy said the reason the fire spread so quickly was because the building did not have the necessary fire precautions.

“”(This) shows the importance of having a sprinkler system in your building. There was a fire this morning at Park (Place) Mall that was completely contained in the unit, but older buildings often don’t have sprinklers,”” Tracy said.

Clint Rusing, a physiology senior, said he lives near the area where the fire is located and could see “”big black plumes of smoke”” coming from the building.

“”You started seeing flames coming out of the roof and smoke got pretty black and thick.””

Sixty to 70 fire fighters responded to the scene, Tracy said.