A raging fire at a Norcross strip mall Thursday morning completely destroyed three businesses and threatened two others.
The blaze was reported just before 4:30 a.m. at a business in the Colony Village plaza on South Norcross Tucker Road near Jimmy Carter Boulevard. Crews with the Gwinnett County fire department dispatched within minutes, but the business was completely engulfed in flames when they arrived, according to spokesman Lt. Donald Strother.
A total of 28 firefighters worked to get the huge flames under control before they could send any of the crews inside to search for victims, Strother said. No injuries were reported.
“The primary concern, though, once we got the bulk of the flames down, was trying to preserve the businesses on either side,” he said.
The businesses appear to be restaurants. Strother said the business that originally caught fire is gutted, and the two on either side are also likely to be destroyed. The damage is so severe that investigators cannot confirm which businesses were impacted, he said.
A total of five businesses occupy the strip, and all were believed to be unoccupied. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
“The structural integrity has been significantly compromised,” Strother said. “So, that process is going to take some time as the crews there pay close attention to their surroundings and try to avoid injuries.”
During firefighting efforts, two lanes of South Norcross Tucker Road were closed. The lanes reopened about 7:20 a.m.
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