The rear section of a Southside Plaza shoe store erupted in flames minutes after the store closed this evening, attracting as many as 50 firefighters and rescue workers.

While most of the fire was contained within a Shoe City store, as many as nine other stores may have sustained smoke damage, authorities said.

"There will be significant losses there," Richmond Fire Department Capt. William M. Martin said, referring to an adjacent Maxway store.

The fire department received the first reports of smoke coming from the building at 5:24 p.m., Martin said. Shoe City employees, who declined other comment, said the store closed at 5 p.m.

The shopping center is at the intersection of Hull Street Road and Belt Boulevard in South Richmond.

Martin said the source of the fire has not been determined but that it was confined to the rear of the building, one of a series of adjacent stores that Martin said likely were separated by fire walls.

At 5:31 p.m., a second alarm was issued and at 6 p.m., a third alarm. Nine fire trucks and three rescue trucks responded. The fire appeared to be under control by about 7 p.m.

No injuries were reported.

Martin said that heavy smoke settled over as many as a dozen stores but that serious damage appeared to be limited to the Shoe City store and Maxway, which sells general merchandise.

A VCU Health System clinic also may have received damage.