Last White Lakes Mall building catches on fire, $250,000 loss reported

TOPEKA (KSNT) - Topeka firefighters helped put out a fire at the old White Lakes Mall Monday.

Rosie Nichols with the City of Topeka said the Topeka Fire Department (TFD) was called around 1 p.m. on Aug. 19 to the 3500 block of SW Topeka Boulevard on reports of a fire. An exhaust fan in the roof at Mainline Printing, occupying what is left of White Lakes Mall, was on fire following initial reports that a furnace was overheating.

Firefighters arrived to find smoke coming from the structure and quickly put out the fire. One person was wounded and taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Nichols said the fire caused an estimated $252,500 in damages with $2,500 attributed to structure damage and $250,000 to contents loss. The majority of White Lakes Mall was demolished starting in 2022 with one area, owned by Mainline Printing, left behind with the rest of the mall turned into a vacant lot by the end of the year.

White Lakes Mall, prior to demolition, was considered an eyesore and had caught on fire in the past. In December 2020, a fire caused around $100,000 in damage to the mall. Firefighters were forced to fight the fire during freezing rain while on top of the structure.

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