After a Christmas day blaze ripped through a Los Altos shopping mall, a portion of El Camino Real is still closed to traffic and likely will not reopen for several weeks. Meanwhile, business tenants are scrambling to figure out a plan to recover and relocate.

The closure affects one eastbound block of El Camino Real near the Mountain View border, from San Antonio Road to Sherwood Avenue, and has the potential to lead to major traffic snarls once commuters get back in their cars after the holiday weekend.

Los Altos is working on developing a detour plan, which will be implemented in the next few days, said Sonia Lee, the city’s public information officer, in an emailed statement Dec. 28.

The fire occurred at the 4600 block of El Camino Real early Christmas morning, gutting a two-story, 20,000 square-foot shopping center, before firefighters could fully extinguish the blaze later that evening.

The three-alarm fire was challenging to put out, said Santa Clara County Fire Deputy Chief Matt Yost. Fire crews were in a defensive mode, fighting the blaze from the exterior of the building because of the risk of the roof and HVAC system collapsing, he said.

There were approximately 60 first responders working to put out the blaze, which included help from the Mountain View Fire Department, according to a Santa Clara County Fire Department Press release.

The cause of the fire is still unknown, as officials have not been able to investigate the building’s interior, given its instability, Yost said.

With the threat of the structure collapsing, the city has been working with the building’s owner to have it demolished. But this will occur in stages so that fire officials can go in and investigate what happened. “We’re kind of on the sidelines until then,” Yost said.

Cleanup efforts began on Tuesday, with water being pumped out of the building’s basement. Demolition can start once the city receives a complete demolition plan and a permit has been issued, Lee said. El Camino Real will be closed until the demolition is over, which is expected to take several weeks.

The city also has initiated efforts to help the 11 displaced businesses with relocation assistance if they are interested in this option, Lee said.

Raul Tamayo, one of the tenants, already is considering where to relocate his business, Tamayo’s Judo, as he looks to recover from the fire’s devastation. A Stanford coach for 27 years, Tamayo opened his judo club at the Los Altos shopping center about a year ago. Before then, Tamayo had a location in Sunnyvale, but it closed during the pandemic.

“I built up this place myself,” he said. “The spring floors, the lobby, I did it. It was a new beginning.”

Not wanting to close, Tamayo has opted to move his club temporarily outdoors to a middle school playing field, where he has been holding practices for children, ages 5 to 15 years old.

They have been training every day, except for the days that it rains. “We’re running around the track, doing drills, wearing judo tops, keeping people together, trying to keep morale up,” Tamayo said.

Liz King, another tenant, also is trying to stay positive. She is considering reestablishing her business, EK Electrolysis, in a new location, with possibly another tenant from the Los Altos shopping center. The fire has been a huge upheaval, she said, noting that it has affected the entire complex as a community.

“We all know each other here,” King said, adding that she has been a tenant at the center for more than 20 years.

For King, the road to recovery will be difficult, as her insurance does not cover fire loss. Like Tamayo, she is relying on the help of community support through donations funneled into a GoFundMe account.

The Los Altos Chamber of Commerce also has established a relief fund on its website for community members to donate money to businesses displaced by the fire.

“I’m starting over again ... one step at a time,” Tamayo said, when asked about where he plans to go next.