Fire shuts down mall in Parma

PARMA, Ohio (AP) — A fire in a rack of clothing has spread smoke through an Ohio shopping mall, forcing stores to close for several hours amid the holiday sales season.

Spokesman Doug Turner with the Parma fire department in suburban Cleveland says firefighters have a training facility inside the Parmatown Mall and responded quickly around 9:30 a.m. today. But by the time they reached the U.S. Fame clothing store, workers had already put out the fire.

The only person hurt was a store employee who cut a finger on an extinguisher.

Turner didn’t know how the fire started and couldn’t estimate how many shoppers were in the mall at the time.

The mall was evacuated, except for large anchor stores with separate entrances. Management hoped to reopen later this afternoon.