EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP – A fire that appeared to start in the ceiling at the Burlington Coat Factory in the Shore Mall caused the evacuation of the store’s employees and customers around 1:15 p.m. Thursday afternoon.

“They just told me to get out,” customer Leonora Fayer of Atlantic City said.  “I was not in there five minutes, and didn’t see or smell anything.”

Fayer stood just outside the main doors of the store with several others customers and about two dozen employees.

Lt. Mike Rinehart from the Cardiff Volunteer Fire Company said about a dozen firefighters were on scene from the Cardiff and Bargaintown vounteer fire companies.

He said the cause appeared to be a fluorescent light ballast in the ceiling around the ladies section of the store that had caught fire. He said there were no flames, but some smoke was visible.

“The store will be closed until they can get an electrician in to check it out,” Rinehart said after leaving the store April 24.

No other sections of the mall were closed, and employees were allowed back into the store around 1:40 p.m.