An early morning fire ripped through a south-side Edmonton business on Thursday, destroying lighting fixtures, furniture and décor.
Fire investigators said the fire started outside of the building but they’re still investigating how it started.
Chateau Lighting has been a fixture on the corner of 99 Street and 43 Avenue, near the Whitemud overpass ramp, for years.
Fire crews were called to the scene around 4:20 a.m. Thursday and arrived minutes later to flames and smoke coming from the back end of the strip mall.
District Chief Mike Weiss, with Edmonton Fire Rescue, said the fire was listed as under control about an hour and a half after crews arrived. An early morning commuter saw the flames and called 911.
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Weiss said a total of nine crews were on scene to battle the blaze.
“There’s quite extensive damage in the lighting store,” Weiss said. “There was some smoke damage as you move down the strip, but the fire did not extend to the other businesses.”
Sandeep Singh owns one of the businesses that is three bays away from the fire. He said it wasn’t until he came to the scene early Thursday that he saw the extent of the damage.
Weiss said that with the number of electrical fixtures inside a lighting store, was a concern.
“Once we open our doors, it was full of smoke inside, you can’t even step inside,” said Singh. “All this stainless steel and all these glasses have soot buildup now.”
Johnson sewing is next door to the fire. The billboard for the store was updated to say “we are temporarily closed due to smoke damage.”
Singh said he didn’t see anything specific Thursday morning but noted, he’s seen people camped out in the back parking lot of the strip mall. He said someone recently stole his catalytic converter, and his business has suffered a break-in.
“Looking at all these incidents we are thinking of making a change because businesses are already slow and you can’t take more and more hits,” said Singh.
The back wall of the lighting store was burned out, and inside, the damage was extensive.
Fire investigators arrived at the scene around 8:30 a.m., the fire was put out at 11:51 a.m.
There were no injuries.
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