Fire Destroys 2 Stores in San Fernando Mall

Fire broke out Thursday in a popular shopping mall that is the commercial centerpiece of this historic Valley community, destroying a shoe store and a wedding photographer’s studio, authorities said.

The charred businesses were among several clothing, shoe and consumer electronics stores that line the brick-paved mall in the 1000 block of San Fernando Road in the downtown area.

The blaze broke out at 10:30 a.m., in the Zapateria Mexico shoe store. Flames spread quickly through a common attic into the Wedding Memories studio next door, said Capt. Steve Ruda, a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman.

Adrianna Rodriguez, 26, of San Fernando, said she had just arrived for work as a photographer’s assistant at Wedding Memories when an employee at the shoe store came in and said a fire had broken out in the rear of Zapateria Mexico.

Rodriguez looked around her shop. “When I went to the back of the store, everything looked fine,” said Rodriguez, who has worked at the studio for two years.

She said she left the store when she heard the firetruck sirens. From the sidewalk, she watched flames consume the photography store’s interior.

Eighty Los Angeles firefighters from 15 companies spent two hours bringing the blaze under control, Ruda said. No injuries were reported and damages were estimated at $200,000 total for both stores, Ruda said. The cause of the fire has not been determined.

Victor Lizano, 64, owner of Wedding Memories, has taken pictures since he was 15. He worked as a news photographer in his native Costa Rica before moving to America 33 years ago.

He opened his photography shop seven years later, and relocated to the San Fernando Road mall six years ago.

“This was for me, my own child,” Lizano said, looking at the blackened walls and scorched wedding portraits in a display window. “I had an offer from somebody to buy it, but I didn’t think about it. After so many years, I didn’t want to sell it.”

Lizano’s shop had previously been located two doors down. He moved the business after that store was damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

He said he wasn’t sure whether he would rebuild. “I don’t have any idea,” he said, shaking his head.