Market Fire Forces Evacuation

Customers and employees at a Vons grocery store in Simi Valley were evacuated Monday night after a fire started in a back storeroom, authorities said.

The fire began in the southeast corner of the store at 660 Los Angeles Ave. about 8:24 p.m., Ventura County fire dispatcher Sam Meier said. The cause of the fire was under investigation.

Thirty-five firefighters responded to the blaze, and it was nearly extinguished by 10 p.m., Meier said. The fire, inhibited by a sprinkler system, was confined to a 20-by-50-foot area inside the storeroom, authorities said.

When firefighters removed skylights to ventilate the building, they discovered that aerosol cans were exploding, Meier said. Most of the damage to the store was from smoke and water, authorities said.

Meier could not say how many people were evacuated from the store. But Jason Hertz, a clerk at the Video Super Shop, about three stores away, said about 50 people stood in the parking lot of the shopping complex, watching the blaze. Hertz said he thought many of them were customers.

“They had to leave their shopping carts at once,” Hertz said. “There’s half-checked-out food in the lines there.”