ST. LOUIS — St. Louis firefighters were kept busy Saturday morning by a two-alarm fire at a vacant warehouse in north city.
As of 9 a.m. the fire was under control but not extinguished. St. Louis Fire spokesperson Garon Mosby said he expected they would be pouring water on it well into the evening. Due to partial building collapse, there are likely parts of the fire trapped under rubble that the water isn't reaching, Mosy said.
St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson said firefighters had to evacuate the three-story building at N.19th and N. Market streets as it was too dangerous to fight from the inside. Ladder trucks surrounded the building from all directions outside the collapse zone to attack the fire in the center of the building.
Once they brought the fire under control, they were mostly focused on making sure the flames in the center of the building didn't spread to connecting buildings. At one point, fire crews had to put out part of the fire that was traveling across a sky bridge.
The building is often used for shelter by homeless residents.
"This is an old, factory-style building, heavy wood, heavy timber. Lot of combustibles," Jenkins said. " ...The other issue we had, you can see we have a lot of heavy electrical wiring around this building that's used to supply this building. Trying to cut it down and turn it off right away would affect the entire neighborhood.
There are no reports of injuries at this time.
This is a developing story. It will be updated as more information becomes available.