The fire happened in a strip mall on Blackstone and Ashlan in Central Fresno. Although it started on the outside and spread to one furniture store, firefighters were able to stop it before it spread to the nearby Petco pet store.
The Fresno Fire Department received the call at 11:30 for a building that was on fire. A full commercial response was sent to the scene. When they arrived minutes later, they found an exterior fire on backside of Mervyn's strip mall.
Firefighters quickly put out the fire and noticed water coming from the building. When they got inside, found fire had moved inside the Ideal Furniture Gallery, and the fire sprinklers were going off.
"The majority of damage was actually due to water with the multiple sprinkler heads going off. So it's a furniture store it's got a lot of fire load, it was a lot of material inside and they all got wet," said Bart Burkhart, Fresno Fire Department Captain.
The fire caused about $5,000 in damages, but the water damage is expected to be much more.
