In Sunnyvale, firefighters responded to a fire that broke out Saturday afternoon at a local strip mall.
The call came in at about 2:30 p.m. about a fire at a shopping center on the intersection of North Mathilda Avenue and Maude Avenue. It was a report of smoke in one of the buildings.
When firefighters arrived, they said the smoke grew significantly.
"It is a complex structure in that you have a portion of it under construction and it adjoins a working supermarket that needed to be evacuated and closed," Public Safety Fire Chief Doug Moretto said.
The Lucky’s grocery store in the complex was evacuated and closed for a time.
Firefighters said they believe the fire started somewhere between a liquor store and Chinese restaurant. Both are adjacent to the grocery store and both self evacuated when workers and patrons saw the smoke.
There is heavy damage to both businesses, but firefighters say it is hard to tell how much of it is from the fire since construction is also going on in the complex.
Sukai Muhan, the owner of the liquore store, which has been in business for more than 15 years, said the fire could take months to recover from because hundreds of thousands of dollars in inventory either melted or was destroyed by water damage.
The owner of the Chinese restaurant said he saw smoke coming from the back wall. He and his family grabbed fire extinguishers, but after realizing it was not going to be enough to put out the fire, he called 911.
There were no injuries and no word yet on the cause.
