Officials believe they've caught the South Beach arsonist, but the Miami Beach Fire Department was still feeling the heat this weekend when an unrelated fire sparked up in the ArtCenter South Florida on Lincoln Road. The fire destroyed one artist's studio completely, while two other studios were severely damaged by water.
The fire erupted yesterday afternoon at the ArtCenter on Lincoln Road and Michigan Avenue during a peak time for the area. Fire crews and police blocked off the area, and everyone inside was quickly evacuated.
They were able to put out the fire before it spread to other studio spaces, but the water used to douse the flames damaged other works of art.
"I think the impact is more to the individual artists and the damage to their own work and how unfortunate that can be," Art Center/South Florida Executive Director Jeremy Chestler told WSVN, "so I think it's a lot more emotion involved than it is actual material damage."
The cause of the fire has not yet been discovered. The ArtCenter will be closed today for clean up.
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