Cleanup and inspection following an afternoon fire at the Eagle Village shopping center in Fredericksburg on Thursday. Fire departments from Fredericksburg City and Stafford, Spotsylvania and King George counties participated. (Photo by Robert A. Martin)

Bicycles were piled high on the sidewalk outside Play It Again Sports late Thursday afternoon, their mass of jumbled handlebars protruding above an archipelago of different-sized basketballs.

The sporting goods were among the most visible detritus from a three-alarm fire that broke out in Fredericksburg’s Eagle Village Shopping Center around 12:30 p.m. Thursday. Authorities believe that the blaze originated at Play it Again Sports before spreading to several nearby businesses at the strip mall, Fredericksburg Fire Chief Mike Jones told the Free Press.

“They’re still working on that,” Jones said of the fire marshal’s investigation. “They’re digging through the back of the Play it Again Sports business to see if they figure out what started it. We won’t have a cause or area of origin for a couple of days, to be sure.”

Beyond Play it Again Sports, there was “very significant damage” to A Stitch in Time, as well as water and smoke damage to a post office, a laundromat and Perfect Ten Nails, Jones said.

“I think those three businesses will be able to get back in operation pretty quickly,” said Jones, “but it’s going to be a little while for A Stitch in Time and Play It Again Sports.”

Units from Spotsylvania, Stafford and King George counties also responded to the fire, which made it to the roof of the strip mall, making it particularly difficult to extinguish. Firefighters were seen cutting open sections of the roof to access the flames.

“You can see some daylight in there,” Jones said of his firefighters’ incisions.

Large plumes of black smoke were briefly visible miles away in downtown Fredericksburg, a sight Jones attributed to a layer of rubber insulation that caught fire in the roof space.

According to Jones, a couple of people were evaluated by medical personnel on the scene, but no one required hospitalization. No firefighters were injured.

It took firefighters 30 minutes to get the blaze under control and another hour “to get all the hot spots knocked down,” Jones said. By 4 p.m., only a few emergency vehicles remained in the shopping center parking lot.

“It took us a little while,” he said.

Firefighters battle a blaze at the Eagle Village shopping center in Fredericksburg, Va. on Thursday, December 5, 2024. Fire departments from Fredericksburg City and Stafford, Spotsylvania and King George counties participated. (Photo by Robert A. Martin)