An early Sunday morning fire tore through a strip mall in south Phoenix, prompting a large response from firefighters and temporarily threatening nearby businesses.
The blaze was reported around 5 a.m. near the intersection of 16th Street and Southern Avenue. According to the Phoenix Fire Department, crews arrived to find heavy smoke and visible flames rising from the rear portion of the commercial building.
As the fire intensified, officials upgraded the response to a second alarm, signaling the need for additional personnel and equipment due to the scale of the incident and the size of the structure.
Firefighters deployed ladder trucks equipped with master streams — high-capacity water cannons — to contain the flames and prevent the fire from spreading to adjacent businesses within the shopping center. Their efforts brought the situation under control later in the morning.
No immediate information about injuries was released. Investigators are now working to determine what sparked the fire.
