An overnight fire in a Palm Desert commercial building along El Paseo has shuttered businesses at an inopportune time, store owners said.

"(It's) just a bad time," said Brenda Barnes of Pampered Bath Fine Soaps & Gifts, one of the five businesses in the commercial building at 73-560 El Paseo.

Barnes said she had recently spent a lot of money buying new items for the store and also had two charity events planned for December.

Firefighters were called to the building at 10:23 p.m. Thursday to battle the two-alarm blaze, according to the Riverside County Fire Department.

The fire damaged the back wall of Pampered Bath, and Barnes said smoke and water damaged about 20 percent of her inventory.

"I have probably $100,000 worth of products in here," she said. "You expect to sell it. You don't expect to be scrubbing the smoke off of it."

Lauren Salkin, who owns the LJ Salkin Photography art gallery in the building, said her gallery also suffered smoke and water damage.

With snowbirds returning to the desert for the winter, she said her business was starting to get more traffic.

"Things were just starting to pick up," Salkin said.

The La Quinta resident said a friend called her last night and told her the building where her business is located was on fire.

"I went down there around 10:20 and the entire roof was on fire," she said.

Frasca Jewelers, Pampered Bath and Pastry Swan Bakery were all heavily
damaged, according to Salkin, who stayed at the scene until 1 a.m.

About 45 firefighters contained the blaze by 12:14 a.m. The cause is still under investigation, according to the fire department.

Salkin said she will be going to the business this morning to assess the
damage.

"I think we're going to be closed for a little while," she said.

Barnes, the owner of Pampered Bath, said late Friday morning that she did not know when she would begin cleaning up or be able to reopen her store.

"I have no idea ... how long it's going to take," she said.