Fire rips through businesses in Baldwin Park causing significant damage

Two businesses in a strip mall in Baldwin Park took the brunt of a fast-moving fire on Tuesday morning.

At the corner of Ramona Boulevard and Syracuse Avenue, outside of a commercial strip mall, a Mexican restaurant and flower shop were engulfed in flames.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department said firefighters were dispatched to the scene around 12:55 a.m. for a second-alarm commercial fire. When crews arrived, they saw heavy smoke coming from the strip mall and they said the smoke was pressurized, which suggests the fire may have been burning in the attic for some time before it was spotted.

Firefighters said it was an extremely challenging fire because flames made their way into the roof. Crews had to get off the roof due to the severity and the danger of collapse, and that made it harder to find exactly where the fire was moving.

More than 75 firefighters helped extinguish the fire in a little over an hour.

"One of them was a restaurant, which is the potential for a lot of things that could be in there," said Capt. David Dantic, from the LA County Fire Department. "There is a heavy fire load in those businesses as well as furniture as well."

Crews will remain on the scene for several hours to check for hot spots and make sure nothing reignites.

The cause of this fire is still under investigation. No injuries were reported during the incident.