By Karena Garrity

There was quite a scare on Saturday morning at the Guilford Plaza as fire trucks from Guilford, Madison and Branford roared through the parking lot and customers were evacuated from stores. The fire, which yielded a large amount of smoke, was contained to the exterior façade of the common roof assembly of the stores of several businesses in the plaza. According to John Mazzarella, who has owned Naples Pizza for the past 31 years, he smelled smoke Saturday morning around 10:30ish and called in the emergency. “I think one of the signs shorted out,” said Mazzarella whose business has some damage, but nothing that would keep it closed.Assistant Fire Chief and Deputy Fire Marshal, Wayne Vetre explained that at the present time, the cause of the fire is still officially under investigation. However, no one was harmed or injured due to the fire and it was contained quickly and professionally. All businesses were back to normal by early afternoon.“There is damage to the façade of the roof, but beyond that nothing was affected and the fire never made it into any of the stores or businesses,” confirmed Vetre.