Former Banning dept. store damaged by fire

Fire damaged the site that used to house the department Mathewson Department Store in Banning Monday afternoon

Riverside County Fire Department spokeswoman Jody Hagemann detailed in a county incident report about 18 firefighters were dispatched to the site at about 1 p.m.

The fire was contained about 1:30 p.m., and no one was hurt.

The building, which dates to the 1920s, was condemned in January 2011 by the city due to building and fire code violations.

Mathewson’s officially closed in March 2011, according to the Riverside Press-Enterprise.