STOCKTON, Calif. -- A three-alarm fire early Thursday morning destroyed three businesses in a strip mall on the southwest corner of Pershing Avenue and Rosemarie Lane in central Stockton.
No one was injured in the blaze that required nine fire engines and three fire trucks to control, according to Fire Chiefs Operator Art Ray, who said the city's resources were stretched by the blaze and there were only three fire engines left to cover the rest of the city. Mutual aid from the county helped cover the rest of the city, he said.
The fire started at 5:18 a.m. Some 40 residents from a neighboring apartment complex, Bali-Hai Outrigger Apartments, were evacuated to Kohl School for shelter.
This is the first third-alarm fire for Stockton Fire Department since a packaging warehouse fire on April 25, 2011, and the first third-alarm fire since staff reductions took effect last summer.
Copyright 2012 - The Record, Stockton, Calif.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
