Buenos Aires, Argentina – Hundreds of shoppers were evacuated Saturday from a mall in the town of Avellaneda near Buenos Aires as the result of a fire that injured no one, the police reported.
Officials said that the fire began in the storeroom of a home appliances store, leading to the immediate evacuation of all who were in the spacious shopping center at the time.
This is the second time this month that a mall in the Buenos Aires area has caught fire, since on March 5 a sports clothing store went up in smoke, and was consequently the scene of another large-scale evacuation.
At least three teams of firefighters went Saturday to control the flames which alarmed the crowds of shoppers in the mall.
Inside the Avellaneda shopping center near the Argentine capital, the blaze sent up a dense column of smoke which spread into other shops in the mall, although the flames were under control, the officials said.
