Fire Sweeps Through Businesses : Damage: Two stores are destroyed in blaze at Fullerton complex.

FULLERTON —  A fire that began with an explosion in a commercial complex Friday destroyed two businesses and several vintage cars, caused about $500,000 in damage, and sent up black smoke that was visible for miles, officials said.

The fire began about 1:30 p.m. Friday after employees in the complex on Fender Avenue heard a loud bang.

Don O’Roark, who worked at Modular Display of California, said he heard “a percussion sound,” and moments later the phone lines and electrical power shut down. Soon, bright orange flames and thick black smoke were everywhere, he said.

About 50 firefighters from Fullerton, Orange County and Anaheim controlled the blaze in about an hour, said Fullerton spokeswoman Sylvia Palmer Mudrick.

No one was injured, but the fire destroyed two of the five businesses in the complex, an engraving shop and a car restorer.

Vic Kitchens, owner of Vic’s Place, managed to rescue a 1940 Ford coupe worth about $50,000 by driving it out of the shop just after the fire began. But his Porsche, valued at approximately $25,000, and three other cars, including a 1948 Willy’s Delivery valued at $25,000 and another car he had been working on for three years, were destroyed.

Kitchens, who started the business 13 years ago, said he was in shock Friday afternoon. Nancy Collins of Flaherty Properties, another business in the long rectangular building, said firefighters helped her save her belongings in the early stages of the fire.

“They were terrific,” she said. “The firemen came in and asked me what I needed” to save from the office, and they removed file cabinets and other possessions.

An insurance adjuster estimated that the fire caused about $500,000 in damage to the structure and contents. Fire officials are investigating its cause, Mudrick said.