Fast-Spreading Blaze Guts La Habra Store : Fire: Popular Smart & Final outlet is a complete loss with $1.5 million damage. A firefighter is slightly injured but employees and customers get out safely.

Flames more than 50 feet high destroyed a La Habra Smart & Final store in minutes Thursday morning, causing more than $1.5 million in damage and wiping out one of the city’s more popular stores.

A firefighter suffered a minor shoulder injury when a light fixture fell as he crawled through the smoke. He returned later to watch wearing a blue hospital shirt and his firefighter’s gear. A store employee was treated for chest pains but recovered.

Investigators were trying to determine the cause of the 10 a.m. fire, which was under control in two hours but continued to send thick smoke into the air for much of the afternoon.

The fire broke out in a corner of the store--at 391 E. Imperial Highway--among shelves of paper goods and then leaped out of control, store manager Larry Mooshagian said.

“It was a five-foot flame. It wasn’t that big,” Mooshagian said. “But then it took off. It jumped from table to table. Within five minutes, the whole store was engulfed.”

Mooshagian dissuaded an employee from attacking the growing blaze with a fire extinguisher and shooed out the four employees and six customers. He said he kicked in bathroom doors to make sure no one was in the building before fleeing.

La Habra Police Officer Pamela Burstein spotted the smoke curling from the roof about 10 a.m. as she turned into a carwash next door. Burstein said she reported the fire, then helped Mooshagian clear the store before rushing to evacuate the carwash.

More than 50 firefighters from eight agencies in Orange and Los Angeles counties battled the blaze with the help of hoses mounted at the top of ladder trucks. Other firefighters moved in to prevent the fire from jumping to the carwash and gas station next door.

Hazardous-materials officials ran tests of the runoff out of concern that industrial cleaners, insecticides and other chemicals sold at the warehouse grocery store might be washed into storm drains. But the water was not contaminated, said La Habra Police Capt. John Rees The streaming runoff carried charred packaging down the street and left a trail of soggy dog biscuits.

Company officials declared the 9-year-old chain store, one of 11 in Orange County, a complete loss, said Smart & Final spokeswoman Leanne Reynolds. She said it was not known what will be done with the 14,300-square-foot building. Fire officials estimated the loss at $1.65 million to the building, its machinery and merchandise.

Fire officials said the roof caved in in the fire’s first 15 minutes. “It’s really fast,” said Mike McGroarty, battalion chief of the La Habra Fire Department.

For McGroarty, the fire also made for a memorable start to his new job: He was scheduled to be elevated to fire chief later in the day.

City Manager Lee Risner said the loss of the store, a supplier for shops and restaurants and ordinary walk-in consumers who buy in bulk, was already being felt.

“It’s a minus whatever (the loss) is. In today’s world, recovering from a recession, any minus is a serious minus,” Risner said.

“I’ve heard several comments around here: ‘Oh, that’s where I get my cat food.’ It was a popular store.”