Crime & Safety

Sears Still Closed After Electrical Fire

Spokesman says company still determining when store can be reopened.

Sears is determining when it will reopen its Willowbrook Mall store after an electrical fire filled the store with smoke earlier this week.

Howard Riefs, a spokesman with Sears Holdings Corp., said the company is still "in the process of determining when it will be reopened." 

Gil Bankston, senior general manager of Willowbrook Mall, said he was told by Sears that they plan to reopen the store as soon as possible but was not given a timetable or date of when that might be.

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Wayne firefighters battled an electrical fire at Sears for hours Tuesday night. The main electrical distribution panel on the second floor caught fire, officials said. Authorities had to cut power to the store and part of the mall in order to extinguish the blaze.

The smoke was so thick inside Sears firefighters couldn’t see their hands in front of their faces and had to crawl on their hands and knees in order to find the fire.

Find out what's happening in Waynewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

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