San Diego

A fire broke out in a warehouse in Mission Gorge Thursday, doing $250,000 damage to three businesses, fire officials said.

San Diego firefighters responded to a report of smoke at 7079 Mission Gorge Road at 6:45 a.m. and found a fire burning inside the 20,000-foot concrete-block building, said Lonnie Hider-Kitch, a spokeswoman for the San Diego Fire Department.

The blaze was apparently started by spontaneous combustion in some oily rags left in a woodworking shop at one of the businesses, Shutters From Simmons, she said. Most of the damage was to the shutter store, but the roof of the building was destroyed, Hider-Kitch said.

There was significant smoke damage to the Morton Equipment & Supply Co., and to another shop that appeared to be vacant, she said. No one was in the building at the time of the fire.