Businesses Damaged in Granada Hills Strip Mall Fire

Firefighters battled another blaze around the same time at a two-story home that was also in Granada Hills.

Los Angeles firefighters were busy fighting two separate fires in Granada Hills early Thursday morning, one of which severely damaged local businesses.

At around 1:20 a.m., Los Angeles Fire Department received word of a greater-alarm fire in the Gilmarc Plaza strip mall on the 16100 block of San Fernando Mission Boulevard.

The fire was mostly confined to the attic of the West Side Chop Shop barber shop. Firefighters had to cut through security gates to get inside and fight the blaze.

The fire also spread to the Regal Cleaners shop next door.

Investigators believe that the fire may have been caused by an electric malfunction in the barber shop store sign. They have ruled out arson.

"It looks like it was a slow, smoldering fire for even up to a couple of hours and then finally debris fell down into the barber shop on a sofa that was sitting in the front lobby area, and that started the majority of the fire," Capt.Paul Egizi said.

The owner of the Regal Cleaners shop told NBC4's Toni Guinyard that there had been a problem with smoke coming from the electric sign at the Italian restaurant in the strip mall about two months ago, but that sign had been replaced.

Another fire broke out at two-story home on the 11100 block of North Newcastle Avenue just minutes earlier around 1:10 a.m.

The fire began outside and spread to the attic, where it was confined. Four people in the home were evacuated. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}

No injuries were reported in either fire. The cause of both fires is under investigation.
 

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