Tijuana Health Club Fire Causes $1 Million Damage : Motion Picture Star Silvestre Owner of Gym

A fire that is believed to have started in an electrical circuit box caused an estimated $1 million in damage Sunday to a three-story gymnasium, authorities reported.

The gymnasium, owned and operated by Eduardo Silvestre, a Mexican motion picture star and former Mr. Universe, was destroyed, Tijuana police said.

More than 40 firefighters spent three hours battling the blaze, which broke out just after 1:30 p.m. at Silvestre Spa de Salud.

The gym is located about two miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border near the intersection of Boulevard Agua Caliente and Avenida Jalisco.

There were no injuries reported, although several firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation by Red Cross workers at the scene, according to police.

A Tijuana police spokesman said that the 30-year-old concrete and wooden gymnasium was gutted by flames.

An adjacent home, also owned by Silvestre, was also badly damaged in the blaze.

Neither structure was insured, the spokesman said.

But the biggest loss, Silvestre said tearfully as he watched firefighters tackle the blaze, was the destruction of numerous photographs, personal files and assorted memorabilia collected over the last 50 years.

An actor of moderate renown who won the Mr. Universe title in 1954, Silvestre said he had planned to use the materials to write an autobiography.

Most of the items were irreplaceable, he added.

A Tijuana police spokesman said the fire was believed to have been caused by faulty circuitry in the rear of the gym, a popular facility that was the city’s oldest athletic club.

Police said an investigation of the fire’s cause would continue today.