Fire Destroys Most of 28 Shops in Encino Mall, Closes Thoroughfare : Ventura Boulevard: Officials say the 12-year-old, two-story mall is a total loss. The cause is unknown.

A fire raced through an Encino mall Wednesday, causing $3.5 million in damage, destroying most of the 28 small businesses there and closing busy Ventura Boulevard for 10 hours.

The blaze, which originated in the center of the U-shaped Capri East shopping plaza in the 15900 block of Ventura Boulevard, spread quickly to both wings of the building, officials said. Its cause was unknown and fire officials declared the building a total loss.

But more than the structures, the early morning fire devastated the tenants of the center--several independent business owners who have struggled for years to build up a clientele. In the process, many said, they have developed their own close-knit community.

“All the tenants are very close to each other,” leasing manager Ruth Stern said. “I would call it a family, really.”

Most of the businesses lost were small, family-run operations--a hot dog restaurant, a yogurt shop, a one-hour photo franchise and a children’s dance school among them.

The two-story mall, constructed in a country French architectural style with an open courtyard, was a favorite gathering place for local residents and office workers.

“It was a quaint atmosphere,” said Mimi Landers, who works at an employment agency about a block away. “It is a big loss for the neighborhood.”

The blaze was the second large fire on Ventura Boulevard in less than two years. In December, 1990, an arson-caused fire gutted two stores in the 12100 block in Studio City, damaged several others and caused $2.5 million in damage.

Fire Department officials said Wednesday’s fire spread rapidly because of lightweight materials used in the construction of the 12-year-old building and the structure’s common attic, which had partitions that did little to slow the flames as they jumped from store to store.

Officials said the building was up to fire codes and its designer said more anti-fire measures were taken in its construction than required by law.

The steeply tiled roof and attic that helped spread the fire were added to the plans by the mall’s owner, Phil Sytten, and designer, Encino architect Robert M. Ridgley, to make the mall stand out and yet be aesthetically pleasing to neighbors, Ridgley said.

Ridgley said that the design feature was not required and that Sytten could have built a less expensive, but uglier, flat-topped mall such as hundreds of others in the Valley.

“He chose to do a real community service,” Ridgley said of Sytten.

Fire Department spokesman Phil Weireter said firefighters were first called to the nearby corner of Ventura Boulevard and Gaviota Avenue shortly after 3 a.m. when someone called in a report of a rubbish fire.

When they arrived, firefighters saw no fire but smelled smoke, and then saw a man waving to them from the front of the Capri. Weireter said the man was apparently an owner of one of the shops who had been alerted by a private security service, but his name was unavailable.

The firefighters saw stores in the rear burning and immediately called for reinforcements.

The blaze roused residents of the neighborhood behind the center, where some houses on Dickens Street are only 20 feet from the mall. Some evacuated their children or scrambled onto roofs with hoses to protect their houses.

“It was close--it got very, very hot,” said Ted Shachory, one of the residents who spent the early morning on his roof with a hose.

Flames rose as high as 30 feet, and it took 130 firefighters more than two hours to control the fire.

One firefighter was injured when a piece of the heavy tile roof slipped off and struck him in the face. He was treated at Encino Community Hospital and released.

After dawn, the smoldering debris drew many onlookers, including owners of businesses that were lost.

Among the first on the scene was Sytten, who lives nearby and was alerted by a security officer. “The building is burnt down. That’s it,” said Sytten, who owns the mall with two partners in a group called Capri International.

Several owners of shops that were destroyed came up to console him and be consoled.

Many merchants in the center said they considered each other as family--small-business owners united in their quest to eke out a decent living. “Most of us are all in the same boat, and we just really care about each other,” said Helen Hasapes, 29, owner of Encino Flowers With Charisma.

Most of them--and many of their customers--were accustomed to gathering at the Hot Dog and Sandwich Construction Co., the unofficial social center of the mall. Many of the store owners had their pictures on the shop’s wall, along with other photographs of loyal neighborhood customers.

Juanita Brait, 32, who owns the sandwich shop with her husband, Robert, stood across the street from the center, gazing in disbelief at the ruins. “I’m in shock, just a state of shock,” she said.

Like many of the merchants, the Braits, who live in Woodland Hills, learned about the fire when they were listening to radio news on their way to work.

“We rushed down here,” Robert Brait said. “But it was already gone.”

Ray Weaver, 44, owner of the For Men Only Hair Salon, said a friend called him at home to tell him about the fire. “I thought he was kidding,” he said.

Some tenants set aside their own concerns to ensure that Sytten, 67, who underwent open-heart surgery in February, was coping emotionally with the disaster.

“Instead of worrying about themselves, they all came to tell him, ‘Don’t worry,’ ” said Sytten’s wife, Millie, 64.

Starting over will be difficult, but many plan to try.

“We’re going to start deliveries again very soon,” said Hasapes, the florist. “We have a big wedding this weekend and we’re still planning on doing it. We want to hurry and relocate.”

Boulevard Escrow owners Jerry and Nancy Bennett said many important financial documents were destroyed. “We’re going to have to find a way to re-create them, and this is not going to be easy,” Nancy Bennett said, but “we’ll do the best we can.”

Times staff writer Michael Connelly contributed to this story.