Faribault police are investigating a Tuesday evening fire they consider suspicious.
The fire was reported just before 5 p.m. at the city’s PetSmart in the Faribo West Mall on Western Avenue. When police arrived, customers and store employees were evacuating the building and light smoke could be seen in the back of the business, according to a release from Fire Chief Dustin Dienst. Police officers entered the building, located the fire, evacuated the store’s animals and updated firefighters as they arrived on scene. Firefighters located the fire was located in a bathroom which had been extinguished by the store’s sprinkler system. The sprinkler system was then shut down and firefighters used squeegees to clean up the water on the floor by pushing it down a drain.
Following an on-scene investigation, police determined the fire’s origin was suspicious, and contacted the State Fire Marshal’s office.