Two-alarm fire scorches hardware storage area

Wednesday, May 31, 2000 | 11:08 a.m.

A fire raged through the storage area of a Sears Hardware Center Tuesday afternoon, causing $100,000 in damage.

Black smoke billowed out of the back of the store at Cheyenne Avenue and North Durango Drive from burning plastic fencing as spray paint cans loudly burst from the heat.

"They were shooting out like little missiles," Las Vegas Fire Department spokesman Tim Szymanski said. Nobody was hurt by the bursting metal containers, which littered the area behind the store.

Twenty firefighting units and more than 50 firefighters brought the two-alarm fire under control within 10 minutes. The 19 people in the store were evacuated before the firefighters arrived.

Two witnesses said they saw what appeared to be a lid from a large metal container shoot about 120 feet into the air right after a large explosion.

Firefighters credit an automatic sprinkler system in the store leading to the outside storage area for preventing the fire from spreading inside.

The store will be closed for a few days, because the heat destroyed a 27,000-volt Nevada Power transformer serving the store.

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