SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - Investigators are trying to determine the cause of a fire that damaged a vacant building in Hillcrest Tuesday morning.
The structure fire was reported shortly after 8 a.m. at a vacant alterations business in the 3900 block of Park Boulevard, near University Avenue, according to San Diego Fire-Rescue Department officials.
By 8:30 a.m., responding firefighters were able to put out the blaze before it spread further. Crews had to first ventilate the building before entering to knock down the flames.
10News learned the fire started in the back of the shop formerly known as Anh’s Alterations. The business has been closed for several months and is surrounded by a chain-link fence.
Witness Becky Kremer told 10News, “I tried to walk over, everything was blocked. There was a big cloud of smoke and ash and it was falling where I was waiting at the crosswalk at the other side.”
No injuries were reported.
Fire officials said there is a homeless population problem in the back of shop, but it is too early in the investigation to say if that linked to the fire.
The fire department’s Metro Arson Strike Team was summoned to the scene to investigate.
