Three-Alarm Fire Destroys Stockton Strip Mall, Threatens Apartment Complex
STOCKTON (CBS13) – An apartment complex was evacuated as firefighters battled a three-alarm fire at a nearby strip mall in Stockton on Thursday morning.
The fire broke out around 5 a.m. at a strip mall on North Pershing Lane near Rosemarie Lane.
About 50 firefighters were battling the blaze at the strip mall where there are between three and five businesses.
A nearby apartment complex was evacuated as a precaution. About 40 people had to leave their homes as firefighters sprayed water on the complex to prevent flames from spreading to it.
About an hour and half into the battle, the fire flared up again and the complex collapsed in flames.
Firefighters say a couple of factors make this one a bit suspicious -- when the fire started -- early-morning, when the businesses were closed and the specific business where it started, which could connect it to a string of recent fires citywide.
An ATF investigator arrived on-scene. The same one, we're told, who's working with the Stockton Fire Department on the city's rash of suspicious Laundromat fires. It's believed Thursday's morning's strip mall fire started in the Wash Depot Laundromat.
"Anytime you have a fire in vacant or closed building in the early part of the morning when nobody's around, yes it becomes suspicious, solely because there's no people here to cause the problem," Stockton Fire Battalion Chief Michael Lilienthal said.
Three businesses were reduced to rubble: the Laundromat, a water supply company and a beauty salon.
By the time the building's front facing collapsed in a fiery heap, the roof had already caved in.
Dell Johnson and Julian Favela were two of the 40 neighbors at the apartment complex just feet away.
"Panicking, panicking, it was intense," Favela said. "You don't know what direction the flames are gonna go."
Favela shot cell phone video as the fire came frighteningly close, just outside his window.
"We ran back," another resident, Ruben Cardoza, said. "It was just all orange in the house and we looked out the window and it was just flames everywhere like literally 10 feet away."
Crews kept flames at bay from the apartments, but the strip mall was destroyed. Investigators say it's too early to say for sure if this is the work of an arsonist. They'll also look into whether the fire could have had an electrical or gas cause. But with the shape this building is in, it could be awhile before we know for sure what sparked the fire.
