Two-alarm fire damages gym in Midway District

Firefighters were battling a two-alarm fire at a fitness center in the Midway District Thursday morning, and a hotel next door has been evacuated, officials said.

The fire was reported just before 6:20 a.m., and when crews arrived they saw heavy smoke coming from the second floor of the Victory MMA & Fitness gym in a shopping center on Midway Drive near Sports Arena Boulevard, officials said.

All occupants were out of the building when crews arrived, a spokesperson for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department said in an online report. More than 80 fire personnel were sent to the fire.

Midway Drive between Kemper and Duke streets is closed in both directions because of the fire.

Fire officials were told that an occupant of the building saw fire in the heating unit of the gym’s sauna. A fire investigator is looking into the cause of the fire.

“Firefighters searched the entire fitness center structure and no one was located inside. They are making good progress on the fire,” the fire department reported.

San Diego police evacuated guests from the Wyndham Garden San Diego hotel on Sports Arena Boulevard, which is just north of the gym, a police spokesperson said.

No other information was immediately available.