A portion of Jahnke Road in South Richmond was closed this morning after 23 units were damaged in a fire shortly before dawn at a self-storage facility.
Richmond fire Lt. Shawn L. Jones said crews responded at 4:55 a.m. to Space Mart Self Storage in the 6200 block of Jahnke and found several units on fire.
By the time the fire was declared under control at 5:39, six units had been damaged by fire and 17 others were damaged by smoke, water or both, Jones said.
One firefighter was treated for minor hand burns, Jones said.
The cause of the fire was under investigation.
Damaged furniture and other items sat on the lot of the storage facility, and Jahnke was closed in both directions between Blakemore and Newell roads while investigators worked.
Lt. Tim Brandon said the fire appeared to have started in a unit at the rear of a long, rectangular complex of storage closets. Firefighters were unsure which units were burning and had to forcibly pry open several of them, Brandon said.
"That was the hard part in getting in there," he said. "Once we got in there, we knocked the fire down real quick."





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