Small fire in Menlo Park Mall forces short evacuation Fire began with cigarette thrown into hole in wall BY TOM CAIAZZA Staff Writer EDISON - A cigarette caused a fire in the walls of the Menlo Park Mall, resulting in a mallwide evacuation on Friday. According to Edison deputy fire chief Ralph Ambrosio, the fire began at 10:35 a.m. in the wall of a utility corridor network of hallways behind the stores, used by mall employees and deliveries. The hallways are generally not monitored by mall security cameras, and Ambrosio said that the fire was caused by employees using the hallways for smoke breaks. "What they do is meet back there and punch a little hole in the wall and throw the cigarette butts in the hole," Ambrosio said. Ambrosio said that smoking in these areas is not allowed, and the fire department has posted "no smoking" signs that appeared to have been ignored. The flames caused by the cigarettes in the walls were not large enough for the smoke alarms to go off; however, there was enough smoke to warrant an evacuation of the building. Ambrosio said the fire was put out quickly, and there were no reported injuries. Sgt. Robert Dudash of the Edison Police Department said that the damage to the building was minimal and that people were not kept out of the mall for long. "It was relatively quick." Dudash said. "They were out and back." The incident raises questions from the fire department about the lack of monitoring in the back hallways of the mall. Ambrosio said that the department is urging the mall to install security cameras in the hallways in order to curb something like this from happening again. Simon Property Group, the owners of the Menlo Park Mall, issued a statement saying that the company would cooperate with the local police and fire departments and reiterated that their "primary concern" lies with the safety of mall shoppers and employees. The press release called it an isolated incident and thanked the police and fire departments for swift action in containing the fire, which caused little damage to the building and no injuries to shoppers or employees. No one from the mall or Simon Property Group would comment outside of the issued statement. Ambrosio said that while the investigation discovered the cause of the fire, there is no way to know whose actions resulted in the incident. He said that smokers are known to circumvent the rules and smoke there, but "we don't have any clue who threw their cigarette in there."