A fire caused extensive damage to a furniture store in a business plaza off Babcock Street late Tuesday night, and one of the firefighters at the scene suffered an ankle injury that sent him to the hospital, according to Local 6 News partner Florida Today .
Thirty-five members of the Melbourne Fire Department responded to the fire that began past 10 p.m. at Furniture & More at 253 N. Babcock St., Melbourne Assistant Fire Chief Greg Anglin said.
Meantime, Melbourne police detoured traffic from that part of Babcock.
Witnesses told a Melbourne fire investigator one or two couches outside the closed store were on fire and neighborhood residents tried to stop the flames with fire extinguishers, Anglin told Florida Today .
But by then, the fire had shattered the furniture store's front glass exterior and spread into the stor, according to the report. The neighboring businesses in the plaza didn't appear to have been damaged.
However, the fire spread to the plaza façade that spans across the upper forefront of all the stores. Firefighters spent more than an hour making sure that the fire was extinguished. They worked amid smoke from the building, which billowed throughout Babcock.
The hurt firefighter was taken by Brevard County Fire-Rescue to Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne.
A fire investigator spoke to witnesses and was looking into whether the incident was started intentionally.
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.
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