LINCOLN PARK – Firefighters still are investigating what’s being called a suspicious fire early Monday at a strip mall on Dix-Toledo.
No injuries were reported in the blaze, which destroyed Happy Tan, 3904 Dix-Toledo, and Wy Martial Arts Academy, 3906 Dix-Toledo. A vacant commercial site also was wiped out in the building, which comprised five units.
A witnesses reported hearing a loud noise followed by what apparently was a car driving off just before the fire began about 4 a.m.
City firefighters were joined by their counterparts from Wyandotte, Allen Park and Southgate in extinguishing the fire, which slightly damaged a house nearby. Heat from the blaze melted a trash can and plastic on a door about 30 feet away, according to published reports.
Lincoln Park fire officials said the building stayed up despite a stress fracture in the wall on its northwest side, though firefighters at the site steered clear of a potential “collapse zone.”
The multiunit fire was one of several over four hours that morning within a two-mile span in the city, including two in garbage receptacles on Agnes and elsewhere on Dix, and one in a garage on Pagel.