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Customers Safely Escape Dollar Tree Fire In Coral Springs

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CORAL SPRINGS (CBSMiami) -- Firefighters were busy with a stubborn afternoon blaze in Coral Springs.

Heavy smoke was seen escaping through the front of the Dollar Tree at 11530 W. Sample Road on Saturday, around noon.

Customers and employees were in the store at the time but they all managed to get out without anyone getting hurt.

"We heard loud banging. I thought it was like someone smashing a cart into the wall," said Gabby Palumbo. "But when I looked, it was flames."

The fire frightened customers shopping the day before Easter Sunday.

"A big flame got up and everybody got scared," said another witness. "We all were nervous, screaming fire. Our first priority was to get everybody out."

The fire proved to be stubborn due to the store's various items and materials on the shelves. Several storefront windows were smashed in order to let the flames breathe.

Coral Springs Fire Rescue also employed a drone to help better detect hot spots fire officials said was "out of control."

"On that drone, we also have a heat-seeking camera, a flir camera, a forward-looking infrared camera, which allows us to see heat signatures, which allows us to better find the fire," CSFD's Mike Moser said. "In this specific fire today, we were able to see, on the roof, a hot spot that we would not have been able to see with the naked eye."

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