A fire at a nail salon in Parkland Mall forced people to wait in the parking lot as crews responded and quickly handled the situation.
Shortly after 11 a.m. on Monday morning, three fire trucks and an ambulance were dispatched to the Walmart entrance of Parkland Mall, at 4747 67th St. in Red Deer, after the report of a fire coming from the nail salon.
Alty Kanten and Kailey Wall were getting their nails done together on Monday morning. Their backs were to the back room when they noticed smoke starting to come from there.
“All of a sudden there was smoke coming out of the back room,” said Kanten. “They reacted quite well in there, they hit the power right away, got everybody out, ran for fire extinguishers.
“All of a sudden there was a big racket.”
The mother and daughter left the smoke-filled nail salon in a hurry.
“When they realized they couldn’t put it out, they got everybody out really quick,” said Wall. “There was lots of smoke, but you couldn’t see any fire.”
Pat Mulrooney, Red Deer Emergency Services platoon chief, said no one was injured as a result of the short-lived fire.
“It was clothing in the dryer that ignited,” said Mulrooney. “They attempted to put it out with some extinguishers and when our guys arrived, there was still some fire contained to that dryer.”
Walmart and the rest of the mall was evacuated shortly after the fire trucks arrived on scene.
Smoke from the fire was contained to the front entrance of the Walmart, where there is a photolab and the nail salon, and away from the rest of the mall.
The doors between the Walmart entrance and the store kept the smoke out of Walmart.
Once the fire was extinguished, fire crews set up a fan to vent the area and remove as much smoke as they could.
Walmart and the rest of Parkland Mall had reopened early Monday afternoon following the fire.
mcrawford@www.reddeeradvocate.com