TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Firefighters worked in freezing rain Tuesday morning to battle a fire that appeared to do significant damage to a nearly abandoned shopping mall in south Topeka.
Firefighters were called to the White Lakes Mall at about 6:30 a.m., according to local news reports. Multiple crews fought the blaze and appeared to have it mostly under control after about an hour.
Local property tax records show that the mall had an appraised value of less than $812,000. The mall property includes one remaining business, Mainline Printing, at its north end, which apparently didn’t sustain damage, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.
The mall was built on the site of the former White Lakes Country Club and opened in 1964. It once was anchored by anchored by an 85,000-square-foot Sears store and a 52,300-square-foot J.C. Penney store.
Its popularity waned after the larger West Ridge Mall opened in west Topeka in 1988 and both Sears and J.C. Penney moved there.
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