Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, July 8, 2026 – A fire inside the abandoned old Blockbuster building in Versalles brought firefighters and police to the Medina Ascencio corridor Tuesday night, after flames spread through debris inside a vacant commercial property near Liverpool and Niza.
The building sits along the west lateral of Avenida Francisco Medina Ascencio, a busy stretch linking the Hotel Zone, Versalles and the Marina side of town. The fire was at the well-known shuttered video store site, near active businesses, parked heavy vehicles and steady nighttime traffic.
Police were first reported at the scene and requested firefighter support after confirming flames inside the property. Crews deployed water lines, attacked the fire from the street side and cooled the building walls to reduce the risk of spread to nearby structures. No injuries were reported after the site was secured.
Civil Protection director Misael López Muro, said authorities still had not determined what started the fire.
The old Blockbuster name makes the location instantly recognizable to many longtime Vallarta residents, but the more immediate issue is the condition of vacant commercial properties on busy roads. An abandoned building used as an informal dumping spot can turn from nuisance to emergency, especially when it sits close to operating businesses and parked vehicles.
Puerto Vallarta’s Ecology Regulation already treats waste and unsecured waste areas as a municipal problem. It prohibits open-air burning of solid waste, bans dumping solid waste on streets, sidewalks, vacant lots and other unauthorized sites, and requires vacant-lot owners to take preventive measures against soil contamination and pests.
The Versalles fire also hits a neighborhood already dealing with service pressure from rapid change. Earlier this week, PVDN reported that SEAPAL would expand preventive water-line flushing in Versalles after pressure changes stirred natural minerals in local pipes.
PVDN has not seen a municipal inspection report on the structure, and officials had not announced a closure or evacuation order by Wednesday morning.
