ST. LOUIS — Fire crews are investigating a fire inside a vacant home early Monday morning.
It happened overnight, not far from Fairground Park in north St. Louis, but fire officials believe the flames revealed a larger issue across the city.
St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson said fire crews were called just after midnight Monday to the scene on Peck Street, near Lee Street.
"They showed up and they had heavy fire involvement in the rear of the building," he said.
Jenkerson said as smoke continued to rise in the vacant building, they called in for additional backup, since the surrounding homes weren't empty.
"The big problem we had is we had two occupied structures, one on each side, which were heavily also involved from the fire of the main fire building," he said.
Thankfully, according to Jenkerson, the buildings around it were only moderately damaged and there were no injuries, but as the temperatures drop, they're getting these calls more often.
"We've had about six or seven of them in the last couple of weeks," he said.
Jenkerson said it took crews well into the early morning to put the fire out. Even hours later, caution tape and broken glass still lingered, while the main problem was a continued work in progress.
"In the City of St. Louis and surrounding areas, as it gets colder and as the temperatures drop, some of the homeless, the unhoused people, they start seeking shelter because it's too cold for them to be outside, so the obvious choice are some of the vacant buildings and they go in there, they build small fires trying to cook or stay warm, and then they fall asleep and then the fires get out of control," he said.
St. Louis has thousands of empty properties, and that's why after one of their own was killed while responding to a fire in a vacant building, the St. Louis Fire Department created a database to keep firefighters safe.
Jenkerson said they are continuing to work with the city about the larger issue at hand.
"Hopefully it will improve the ability of the city to maintain a very controlled database and also get people to look at this database and maybe buy these buildings and start a renovation on them, which is what we're trying to push for," he said.
As the days only get colder, Chief Jenkerson believes Monday morning's fire won't be the last flames they put out, which is why they need your help.
"We need all the eyes of the neighborhood to help us make sure that we're able to keep the firefighters safe and also keep the people in the neighborhood safe," he said.
Jenkerson wants to remind everyone to be especially careful this time of year inside your home. He's urging everyone to check your smoke detector and to remember you can always call the fire department if you need a new one installed.