Fire early today destroys large Ikea store in Netanya, Israel. Videos of store's interior uploaded to YouTube overnight.
The first Ikea store in Israel was destroyed by a fire that was discovered early Saturday morning and burned past dawn. Built in 2001, the building had 21,500 square feet over two floors. It is located in Netanya, a city north of Tel Aviv.
Interestingly, if you click here you will see four videos of the interior of the same store that appear to have been taken by an employee. I discovered them while looking for fire video. The videos show the loading dock and the cafeteria. As expected, it appears the store had a sprinkler system. These videos were uploaded to YouTube around 3:30 AM Netanya time on Saturday morning.
It is estimated that the fire broke out on the roof, which was covered with tar, and then spread to the rest of the store.
Police said there were no people in the building when the fire erupted. The cause for the flare-up remains unclear at this point.
Firefighters initially fought the blaze from within the building, but they were quickly instructed to evacuate it for fear the roof would collapse.
