Warehouse fire caused $1.75M in damage

Fire officials continue to investigate the cause of the fire that gutted a commercial building Tuesday evening near downtown Burbank, but said the blaze caused $1.75 million in damage.

"It could take weeks to find out the cause, or we could know tomorrow," Burbank Fire Capt. Ron Bell said.

Both the Fire Department and insurance company investigators continue to sift through the charred building at San Fernando Boulevard and Santa Anita Avenue to determine what set off the two-alarm fire in the wholesale distribution company.

On Tuesday, Carlo Sayegh, the business owner and 18-month tenant of the building, said that he locked up at 5:30 p.m., and that there were no signs of trouble. He returned to the scene after being contacted by fire officials.

The building was likely a distribution center for his online business scentedoils.com. Neither Sayegh nor Harold Phillips, the building owner, could be reached on Friday.

Firefighters were forced to fall back when a still-unknown flammable liquid was discovered "pouring out of the doors," and hazmat crews called to the scene said it could have been scented oils for candles.

It took firefighters less than two hours to extinguish the blaze.

Though the shop was not built according to current fire codes, an adjacent auto repair shop was saved in part by a modern fire protection wall, officials said.