A two-alarm fire caused significant damage to the longtime home of the Lassens Natural Foods & Vitamins store in Santa Maria.
At approximately 11:44 p.m. Tuesday, personnel from all Santa Maria Fire Department stations across the city arrived at the business at 1790 S. Broadway in the Plum Tree Plaza.
“It appears when the units got here the fire was all in the attic,” Fire Marshal Jim Austin said Wednesday morning.
Firefighters positioned on top of the building could see the roof starting to fail and were removed due to the danger, Austin said.
That prompted firefighters to switch from an offensive mode to a defensive mode where they battled the blaze from outside the structure.
The roof on the south side of the structure eventually collapsed, creating additional challenges for firefighters.
“When you have a building collapse like that and it’s so involved in fire it gets into all these little nooks and crannies that were created by the collapse,” Austin said. “We still have smoke on one of the corners of the building because it keeps going like that.”
Smoke still rose from one the southwest corner of the structure at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.
A refrigeration unit held up the collapsed structure which also included heating and air-conditioning units, making the interior too dangerous for firefighters working to determine the cause.
But Austin said his preliminary investigation has determined the fire’s cause as accidental with the area of origin appearing to be on the south side of the building.
The building was secure when firefighters arrived so there doesn’t appear to have been a break in, he added.
In addition to the Santa Maria agency, crews from the Santa Barbara County Fire Department and CalFire responded along with a ladder truck from the Five Cities Fire Department and an engine from the Pismo Beach Fire Department.
No injuries were reported.
South Broadway between Inger and Newlove drives was closed for several hours due to the firefighting activity.
The city’s Building Department staff placed a red tag on the building to indicate the dangerous conditions.
Austin recalled the building former tenant being a Sizzler restaurant decades ago.
After the Sizzler closed, a bulk food store moved in for a few years before Lassens opened up.
Lassens has operated for more than 50 years and has 11 stores including in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Venture, Oxnard, Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley. However, the Thousand Oaks store is scheduled to close April 30 after its lease wasn’t renewed, according to a Ventura County Star article.
