BREA : Burned-Out Santa Makes His Rounds
An early morning fire caused by an electrical short destroyed part of Santa’s Village at Brea Mall on Wednesday, authorities said.
A mall security guard spotted the fire at 5:30 a.m.
No one was hurt, but the mall filled with smoke, activating sprinklers that doused the flames before firefighters arrived about 10 minutes later, said Kim Oylear, the mall’s marketing director.
The water from the sprinklers seeped into six stores in the center court around Santa’s Village. They were closed while maintenance crews dried the carpets and floors, Oylear said. The stores reopened by noon.
Santa’s chair was burned, so he roamed around the mall posing for photographs with children, she said.
Barbara Babinski, owner of Sanrio Surprises, one of the stores damaged by the water, said her carpet was still damp, but customers didn’t seem to mind.
“It’s a little bit slippery but everyone’s calm and under control,” she said. “We just feel fortunate no one was hurt.”
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