Inland Empire Fire Crews Fight Strip Mall Fire in Grand Terrace

GRAND TERRACE - The lifelong dreams of business owners crumbled under a mountain of charred wood beams, shattered glass and gnarled metal early Wednesday when a suspicious fire roared through a strip mall.The cause of the devastating blaze at Barton Road and La Crosse Avenue remained a mystery hours later. But store owners, who stared at the remnants of their livelihoods, focused more on their futures.

“This was our whole life,” said Salan Tarrab, co-owner of EZ Mart liquor store. “We saved up 20 years for this and now it’s gone.”

Tarrab, who owns the store with her husband, Zouhir Aldyab, came to open the business at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday, not knowing the fire had consumed the building five hours earlier.

Sixty firefighters from San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Colton and Rialto came to the strip mall at 2:58 a.m. and saw flames shooting out of the roof.

“It was already spreading through the common attic,” said San Bernardino County fire spokeswoman Tracey Martinez.

With no fire sprinklers protecting the building and nothing to stop the flames in the attic, firefighters faced major obstacles in trying to save the building, authorities said. Soon after firefighters arrived, the roof collapsed on the four businesses.

Paramedics took a Colton firefighter to Loma Linda University Medical Center for treatment of a pulled hamstring he received while battling the blaze. He was treated and released, fire officials said.

San Bernardino County sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Beavers said the sheriff’s arson and bomb squad would sift through the rubble in search of a cause of the blaze.

Investigators did not elaborate about why they consider the fire suspicious.

West Coast 911 firefighting news story written by - SB Sun