Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Tonya Papanikolas reportingA three alarm fire at a Salt Lake business filled the sky with black smoke this afternoon.
Scott Freitag, Salt Lake City Fire Department: "The fire had been going for some time. When we arrived, it was venting from the roof already."
The fire tore through the Coamax Sign Company and gutted the building.
Investigators have been on scene tonight trying to pinpoint where the fire started. Because there's so much damage, they say it may take awhile to find the cause.
No one was in the warehouse when the fire started.
Drivers on the freeway first noticed smoke coming from the warehouse along I-15 near 2300 North. As they called 911, the problem quickly became more than just smoke.
Lance, Works Nearby: "We were walking outside, and we just saw smoke lightly barreling out of the building. And we hear all these explosions. All of the sudden, there's just flames just coming out everywhere."
It didn't take long for the flames to melt the roof and then totally collapse it.
Scott Freitag, Salt Lake City Fire Department: "We went defensive fairly quickly because the fire was venting through the roof very quickly. We've heard the roof collapse several times."
Some of the explosions likely came from tires on heavy equipment popping inside the building.
Scott Freitag: "We know talking to the owners, there's an excavator in there, a crane, welding equipment."
Since they couldn't go inside the building, firefighters doused the fire with water from all angles. Some shot water from the ground while others sprayed the warehouse from ladders high above the building. The smoke was thick and black, reaching out to I-15.
Scott Freitag: "We've called a three-alarm fire just to get enough resources. It's a pretty big warehouse."
At one point, flames jumped a fence and caught some grass on fire.
Fireworks stands were another concern. Many lined the side of the warehouse. Firefighters worked in between them.
Scott Freitag: "We're presuming they're empty. We're hoping they're empty. But there are a lot of them there."
In the end, the warehouse was gutted, but fire crews contained the fire before it spread to any nearby buildings.
Firefighters actually saved the north half of the building, which was leased to a different company.
Coamax told firefighters they lost at least a million dollars.
