Thousand Oaks : $700,000 Blaze in Carpet Warehouse Starts in Vacuum

A fire gutted a Thousand Oaks business early Thursday, causing $700,000 worth of damage, authorities said.

The blaze apparently started about 4 a.m. after sawdust smoldered in a vacuum cleaner and ignited at 101 Flooring, a carpeting warehouse in the 700 block of Hampshire Road, authorities said.

Employees of the business had been refinishing the oak floor of a large house Wednesday and vacuumed up the sawdust, Fire Investigator William Hager said.

The workers returned the vacuum cleaner to the office about 5 p.m., Hager said.

More than 50 firefighters responded to the fire and tried to fight itfrom inside the building, authorities said.

However, the fire soon spread to a support beam, so firefighters moved to the outside of the structure.

The roof later caved in, authorities said.

About $500,000 damage was done to the structure, which was valued at $1 million, authorities said, and $200,000 of the $250,000 in contents were destroyed.

In addition, a car and boat stored in an adjacent shop were destroyed, and other businesses sustained smoke and fire damage.

No one was injured in the blaze, authorities said.

The business was not equipped with sprinklers, Hager said.

Building and fire codes require that sprinklers be installed in buildings larger than 5,000 square feet unless they are broken up by special concrete walls that inhibit fires, Hager said.

He said that the building was fitted with at least one such wall.