A fire that started in the kitchen of a Mableton market sent two employees to the hospital with smoke-related injuries and left two firefighters being treated for heat and exertion injuries Thursday. The blaze broke out at a market with an attached kitchen in the 7000 block of Mableton Highway, and crews are now working to preserve what remains of the structure.
The business has been identified as La Casita 2, located at 7017 Mableton Parkway SE, according to 11Alive. Cobb County Fire & Emergency Services received the initial 911 dispatch at approximately 11:30 a.m. Thursday and arrived shortly after to launch an aggressive interior attack while searching for anyone still inside, the station reports.
Everyone had evacuated before firefighters arrived, according to Atlanta News First. Firefighters said employees had tried to extinguish the fire themselves before getting out, a common instinct that can delay emergency dispatches and raise the risk of smoke inhalation.
Two Employees, Two Firefighters Hurt
Two employees were taken to the hospital with smoke-related injuries, according to firefighters cited by Atlanta News First. Two firefighters were also treated at the scene for heat and exertion injuries sustained during the interior fire attack, the outlet reported. The fire was extinguished after firefighters responded, and crews shifted their focus to salvaging what remains of the building.
Heat stress and exertion rank among the leading causes of non-fatal firefighter injuries during interior structure suppression, especially in the summer months, according to safety evaluations from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Thursday's response fits that pattern, unfolding under the same kind of heavy gear and heat load that regularly sidelines crews during warm-weather fire attacks.
A Familiar Pattern for Commercial Kitchens
Fires that begin in commercial kitchens are hardly unusual. Cooking is the leading cause of nonresidential building fires nationwide, accounting for 30% of all such structure fires, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. Commercial kitchen fires also tend to cluster in late morning, with national dispatch data showing a peak between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. as prep work and cooking equipment reach high operating temperatures, per Grinnell Mutual — a window that lines up closely with Thursday's late-morning dispatch.
Commercial food preparation facilities see roughly 5,900 reported structure fires annually across the country, and fire safety research shows that failed or delayed activation of hood suppression systems can let kitchen flames spread rapidly into exhaust ducts and the surrounding structure, according to The ANSI Blog. Whether La Casita 2's suppression system activated as intended remains an open question for investigators.
County Crews Cover a City Still Finding Its Footing
Although Mableton voters approved incorporation in November 2022, forming Cobb County's largest municipality with roughly 78,000 residents, the city's charter still leaves fire protection and emergency medical response to Cobb County Fire & Emergency Services, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. In June, the City of Mableton and Cobb County finalized a one-year intergovernmental agreement authorizing county emergency and public safety agencies to keep operating within city limits, per Cobb County Government.
That arrangement is why the same county crews that answer calls across unincorporated Cobb also handled Thursday's response inside Mableton's borders. It is also the second major commercial fire the county has faced in the area in recent weeks: six weeks earlier, on July 2, Cobb County and Austell fire crews battled a blaze that completely destroyed the Silk World Inc. wholesale warehouse along nearby Veterans Memorial Highway, a fire Hoodline previously covered.
Mableton has also seen commercial fires do serious damage before. In March 2015, a major fire destroyed half of the White Columns Center strip mall on Veterans Memorial Highway after it started in a thrift store office, according to WSB-TV. The extent of the damage to La Casita 2, and the current condition of the two hospitalized employees, had not been detailed as of Thursday afternoon.
