$175,000 Damage in Fire at Strip Mall

Fire tore through the attic of a two-story strip mall in Thousand Oaks on Saturday, causing $175,000 in damage to a real estate office and an Italian restaurant, Ventura County fire officials said.

No one was injured in the blaze.

The fire began shortly before noon when the heat generated from a single-burner gas stove at Viva La Pasta restaurant at 951 Westlake Blvd. caused an adjacent kitchen wall to catch fire, officials said.

Workers at the restaurant extinguished flames behind the stove before Ventura County firefighters arrived but were unaware that the blaze had traveled up a heat ventilation pipe within the wall, past a second-floor real estate office, and was spreading throughout the attic.

“There was no smoke and no smell of smoke,” said Ventura County Fire Capt. Bill Young. “But the wall still felt hot.”

Fire officials immediately closed the restaurant and evacuated about 30 customers and 10 employees.

Soon flames were leaping from the roof as the blaze engulfed the attic above the real estate office. A small portion of the floor of the real estate office was also charred, he said.

The fire was extinguished shortly after 2 p.m.

Viva La Pasta and the real estate office will remain closed until the roof is rebuilt, Young said.