Cigarette warehouse goes up in smoke

DeKalb County firefighters Thursday morning battled a three-alarm blaze that destroyed a large warehouse off Lawrenceville Highway.

The fire apparently started before 6:30 a.m. in a storage trailer parked behind the A to Z Wholesale warehouse on Jordan Lane, according to DeKalb fire spokesman Fred Johnson.

The fire spread into the warehouse, eventually causing the roof of the building to collapse, Johnson said.

No one was in the building when the fire broke out, and no injuries were reported.

The company supplies cigarettes and other goods to convenience stores.

“Most of what they deal with are tobacco products, lighter products, and that’s what we’re encountering on the inside,” Johnson said, predicting that it could take “all day long” to douse the flames.

“Those products are made to burn, so that’s why the building is burning the way it’s burning,”