Fire in Calif. Store Causes $2M in Damages

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Nov. 08--The loss sustained in a fire that swept through a Tuesday Morning store in Citrus Heights was pegged today at $2 million.

The estimate is based on the $1 million in merchandise inside the store and devastating damage to both the retailer's building and an adjacent beauty college.

Investigators this morning entered the gutted building where a fire had raged on Monday afternoon. The salon and styling school existed in the same building with Tuesday Morning -- separated by a false wall, a fire spokesman said.

Fire investigators believe the fire started in a storage area common to the two businesses.

A cause for the fire has not been determined, Assistant Chief Scott Cockrum of the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District said today.

The building housing Tuesday Morning and the Hoss Lee Academy salon and cosmetology school did not have overhead sprinklers. An initial investigation indicated that they were not required.

It is now required that new buildings housing retail businesses have the automatic sprinklers. However, some older buildings are grandfathered in under previous regulations that did not require sprinklers as long as the structure's use didn't change to a use where many people would assemble, such as a church.

"What we believe is that the building was built as a retail outfit prior to mandatory sprinklers," said Cockrum. "As long as the occupancy maintains a similar occupancy, sprinkler upgrades are not required."

Several hours after fire erupted -- sending up a huge plume of black smoke that could be seen across the region -- firefighters poured thousands of gallons of water on the store's smoldering remains.

At one point late Monday afternoon, the dramatic orange flames and billowing smoke attracted dozens of spectators to the busy Citrus Heights shopping area north of Sunrise Mall during the evening commute.

The fire -- near Sunrise Boulevard and Greenback Lane -- started about 4:15 p.m., when two clerks and six customers were in the outlet store, fire officials said. All managed to get out and were unharmed, they said.

More than 80 firefighters and 15 firetrucks and engines were called in to battle the three-alarm blaze, Cockrum said.

Firefighters poured 6,000 gallons of water per minute onto the flames from hoses on ladders extended above the rooftop to finally douse it.

The Tuesday Morning store and the neighboring Hoss Lee Academy were fully engulfed, Cockrum said. A good fire wall, he said, prevented the fire from spreading to the adjoining Rite Aid store.

Earlier, firefighters were on the roof of the Tuesday Morning store as it began to collapse but quickly climbed down. No injuries were reported.

As the flames subsided, water flowed across the parking lot. Layers of the collapsed roof and contents of the store continued to smolder, sending up a cloud of smoke and steam.

Call The Bee's Cathy Locke, (916) 321-5287.