As fire investigators worked to determine the cause of Monday's fire that destroyed two businesses in Citrus Heights, managers of the shopping center announced that one of the firms will reopen next week just down the street.

The loss in the fire that swept through a Tuesday Morning store and the Hoss Lee Academy Salon and Spa at Sunrise Boulevard and Arcadia Drive was pegged Tuesday at $2 million. The estimate is based on $1 million in merchandise inside the store and damage to the retailer's building and the adjacent beauty college.

A third business, a Rite Aid store, suffered minor smoke and water damage but escaped fire damage thanks to a fire wall that separated it from Tuesday Morning, according to Assistant Chief Scott Cockrum of the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District.

Fire investigators believe the fire started in a storage and loading dock area common to Tuesday Morning and the Hoss Lee Academy. The cause has not been determined. Cockrum said fire district investigators will work with insurance company investigators, but it may be some time before the cause is known.

Rite Aid reopened for business about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, and the Hoss Lee Academy is scheduled to reopen at a new location.

"We've relocated Hoss Lee Academy to another one (of) our centers," property manager Jason Bollinger said in a written statement. "They'll reopen just around the corner in Greenfaire Village Shopping Center next week."

Bollinger said Inter-Cal Real Estate Corp., the property manager for center owner Peter P. Bollinger Investment Co., will work with Tuesday Morning to get it back in business as soon as possible.

Security fencing surrounded the shell of the building, and fire inspectors and adjusters for insurance companies waited in the parking lot Tuesday afternoon to begin their work.

Area contractors also stopped by to size up the potential for work reconstructing the building.

Store patrons drove through the lot to assess the damage. Metro Fire Capt. Adam House also brought 22 students from the district's recruit academy to the scene for some field lessons.

For most stores in the former Sunrise Festival center, newly renamed Citrus Town Center, it was business as usual Tuesday.

The portion of the center, a strip mall, that fronts on Greenback Lane, is undergoing a face-lift. Ashley Ayon, an employee at Once Upon a Child, a shop that buys and sells used children's clothing and toys, said she was grateful the fire wasn't in the strip portion of the center and that it didn't delay the renovation.

Store manager Kelly Glensor said contractors had to move construction equipment so fire engines could get through Monday.

Glensor said they were alerted to the fire by a customer. "We went out our back door and we had front-row seats," she said.

"The flames stood two or three firefighters high," Glensor said.

The fire started about 4:15 p.m. Cockrum said a customer at Tuesday Morning saw flames and alerted employees.

He said firefighters initially tackled the blaze offensively, going inside the building and onto the roof with hand lines, but they called an emergency evacuation and switched to a defensive strategy when it became evident the roof was about to collapse. Using hoses on ladders extended above the rooftop, firefighters poured 6,000 gallons of water per minute on the flames.

"Typically, we go on the offensive when we still believe we have the ability to save property," Cockrum said.

In this case, knowing that no one was inside the building, it was decided that it was too risky to continue an offensive fight to save property, he said.

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