2-alarm food court fire closes mall in Voorhees, NJ, for the weekend

Shoppers in South Jersey will need to find a new place to go bargain hunting this weekend as a two-alarm fire has closed a popular mall.

The Voorhees Fire Department says their crews were called to the Voorhees Town Center, the former Echelon Mall, on Somerdale Road around 5:30 Friday afternoon and they encountered heavy smoke.

According to Camden County IAFF Local 3249, the blaze began in the food court and reached two alarms.

Numerous fire departments from surrounding towns spent several hours at the scene. Luckily, no injures were reported from either those in the mall or first responders.

WCAU-TV reports extent of the damage was not immediately known, however, the mall will be closed for the entire weekend.

Decades of Shopping in South Jersey

The Voorhees Town Center is currently home to approximately three dozen stores, anchored by Boscov's.

The property first opened in 1970 as Echelon Mall.

The mall, which was somewhat successful for a number of decades, began to decline around the year 2000. A significant portion of the mall was demolished in a redevelopment plan later that decade and it was renamed the Voorhees Town Center in 2007.