Westminster : U.S. Agents Look Into Shopping Center Blaze

Federal agents have joined the investigation of a three-alarm fire early Wednesday morning that destroyed four stores, including a supermarket, and caused $1.5 million in damage to a local shopping center.

Fire Chief Dwayne Scott said assistance had been requested from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms “because of the circumstances involved in the fire” at 9121 Bolsa Ave. He declined, however, to say what those circumstances were.

Scott said the blaze, which was reported at 12:03 a.m. and apparently started at the rear of the Wai Wai Supermarket, was being treated as “a suspicious fire at this point” because by the time the first units arrived on the scene, “fire was already going through the roof, which is pretty fast for normal building circumstances.”

Scott said that the cause of the fire “could be known by Friday.”

In addition to the supermarket, the shopping center contained a tailor shop, delicatessen, beauty salon, fish market and barbecue restaurant. The two remaining stores that were not destroyed suffered heavy smoke damage, according to Scott.

Scott said it took 44 firefighters called in from Westminster, Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley and the county Fire Department about 40 minutes to control the blaze.

One fireman who was struck in the head by falling building material was treated at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and later released, officials said.