Chlorine Fire Forces Evacuation of Store

About 100 customers and 25 employees were evacuated from a Target store in Woodland Hills Thursday after fire ignited several containers of dry chlorine in a trash bin behind the one-story building, the Los Angeles city Fire Department reported.

Two employees who complained of minor eye irritation were treated by paramedics outside the store in the 20800 block of Ventura Boulevard, Battalion Chief Neil Bullock said. No other injuries were reported in the fire that started about 4 p.m., he said.

The fire was quickly contained, Bullock said, but smoke entered the store through a garbage chute and blackened part of a wall. Fire officials called a hazardous materials team when an employee told them that pint-sized containers of chlorine had been dumped in the bin, which Bullock said violated a city hazardous materials ordinance.

Authorities had not determined the caused of the fire, he said.