A small fire forced the evacuation of a handful of people at the Westfield Sunrise Mall just before it opened Wednesday morning, fire officials said.
Nobody was hurt in the blaze which broke out shortly after 9:15 a.m. in a vacant store on the mall's second floor, according to Massapequa 2nd Assistant Fire Chief, Gerrard Keuchler.
Firefighters checked the air conditioning units around the store before finding smoldering plywood its facade, Keuchler said.
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The mall remained shut at its scheduled opening time of 10 a.m and wasn't reopened for another half hour.
A few workers who were inside at the time were ordered out of the building.
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"We came in just as the fire trucks arrived," said an employee who asked not to be named. "We went in the back door. We couldn't see the fire, but we could smell smoke. When the firefighters saw us, they asked us to leave."
About 40 firefighters responded to the blaze, which took about an hour to put out.
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