Customer tried to comfort distraught business owners Thursday morning after a fire damaged two businesses in a South Los Angeles strip mall.
The blaze was reported at approximately 12:30 a.m. in the 3800 block of West Slauson Avenue. Flames in the attic of a dry cleaning business spread to a hair salon next door before fire crews were able to douse the fire at 1:50 a.m.
A drying cleaners, barber shop and hair salon were among the businesses damaged or destroyed. A customer who left clothes to be cleaned saw the fire as he was driving by the strip mall Thursday morning.
"I come here all the time to do my clothes," said Trey Robinson. "I've been coming here for longer than five years. I'm heartbroken for the families."
Regenia Cooper has taken her clothes to the cleaners on a corner of the strip mall for three years. She arrived with open arms Thursday morning, embracing owner Manuel Fabian with a heartfelt hug.
"He's such a nice guy," she said. "He's good to the community. He keeps the parking lot clean. He gives us good prices. It made me feel so sad."
She told a tearful Fabian the neighborhood would be behind him when his business is operating again. The important thing, she added, was that he is ok.
"I just want to say thank you to all of them," said Manuel Fabian, whose business opened in 2009. "I feel blessed to be right here on the corner. I do the best for them, and they do they best for me. We start all over again."
No injuries were reported.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. There were no indications that the fire was intentionally set, investigators said.
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The firefight was complicated due to a partial roof collapse and a large air conditioning unit "precariously" suspended from the roof, according to the sheriff's department.
