VIDEO: A weekend fire tore through one of Tucson’s most colorful landmarks, leaving behind charred memories and uncertainty about the future of the Ignite Sign Art Museum. Tucson Fire Department crews were dispatched to the museum near Olsen Avenue and 13th Street just before 10:45 p.m. Saturday night after flames were reported on the roof of a nearby auto glass shop. Firefighters battled the blaze for more than an hour before declaring it under control around midnight. Museum co-owner Jude Cook woke up Sunday morning to the devastating news.
“I got a message this morning from a friend that said they were sorry about the fire at Ignite, and I didn’t know anything about it,” Cook said. “Apparently, from somebody we talked to, I think it was noticed at about 10:30 last night.” The fire destroyed much of the museum’s smaller collection, items Cook says he’s spent more than 50 years gathering from businesses across Tucson’s past. “It looks like it pretty much took out the small stuff of my collection,” Cook said. “That stuff is going to be hard to replace.” Cook estimates that about half of the museum’s more than 1,000 artifacts, including neon signs, memorabilia, and other pieces of local history, were damaged or lost.
