Fire Partially Destroys Hollywood Strip Mall
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HOLLYWOOD (CBSMiami) - Firefighters continued pouring water and dousing hot spots as a massive blaze partially destroyed a Hollywood strip mall.
The fire started at around 1:45 p.m. on the north end of the West Hollywood Shopping Center.
"The fire spread from one of the locations to three or four other locations and during the process, it appears there were some accelerants that sped the fire behavior and increased the fire," said Hollywood Fire Rescue Chief Chris Del Campo.
Chopper4 was over the scene that showed a massive wall of black smoke, flames and the firefight off Hollywood Blvd. and 441. The intersection was closed off in both directions due to heavy smoke.
"Even before I got here I saw the smoke from miles and miles away, not only that, the smell was very, very strong," said shopper Dawn Brewster.
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Phillip Paniccia, another shopper, added, "I did see some flames about 10-foot high. That's a good-sized fire."
According to Hollywood Fire, at least seven businesses were damaged or destroyed, but everyone made it out unscathed.
"The Pet Supermarket was involved. There were some reptiles and birds but no dogs or cats," said Del Campo.
After the initial firefight, crews got the blaze under control. However, sometime late in the afternoon the fire flared back up – fueled by flammable material stored in an unoccupied business.
"It was a very heavy fire load, as we would say. There was a lot of flammable pieces of equipment in storage which gave the fire a lot of fuel to work off it. It made it very difficult to try to control," Del Campo explained.
Some still can't believe the size of the fire and the damage it caused.
"Very scary because I'm just amazed and kind of sad and hurt because I'm always shopping here," said Brewster.
There were no reported injuries.
