A fire broke out this morning on the second floor of the busy Ross store at 4th and Market streets, sending throngs of employees and President's Day shoppers into the rain.
"I was exiting the stairwell to go onto the second floor," said Carlo Montemayor, who had been shopping at the store. " As soon as I was about to cross the threshold to enter, I smelled smoke, and the room was all hazy. Then I saw some flames going up to the ceiling."
"I thought, 'Oh shit, this is pretty intense,'" said Montemayor. He quickly left the scene.
The store was evacuated by staff soon after the fire initially broke out, with both police and fire departments responding to the scene.
According to SFFD spokesperson Jonathan Baxter, the fire was put out by the sprinklers inside the store. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Update, 2:15pm 2/21: The SFPD reports that unidentified suspects "lit a rack of clothes on fire," causing the blaze and evacuation. No arrests have been made.