Customers escape fire at Kroger grocery store

ATLANTA — Customers and employees raced out of a 24-hour Kroger grocery store in Atlanta overnight after a fire broke out in a storage room.

Smoke consumed the store off Moreland Avenue near Hardee Street in northeast Atlanta just before midnight Wednesday.

"They were quick about alerting us that there was a fire in the store. In a very speedy way," store employee Wyoming McAfee said.

Atlanta Fire Department Battalion Chief Todd Edwards said firefighters responded to the back of the store near the loading dock.

"We did find an active fire burning in the rear of the storage area in some of the stock," Edwards said.

Edwards said the store's sprinkler system kept the fire from spreading and crews were able to knock it down.

Joe Calloway was in the deli section of the store when the fire started.

"I was surprised. I was trying to get out of the building, because when I hear, 'Fire,' it's time to move," Calloway said.

McAfee said no one was hurt in the fire and all of the employees are accounted for.

The inside of the store has some smoke damage.

Fire investigators are still searching for the cause of the fire. Edwards said he believes it was an accident.

WSBTV