HIALEAH, FLA. (WSVN) - Fire crews worked for hours to put out a warehouse fire in Hialeah that broke out overnight.
The Hialeah Fire Department responded to the scene near Northwest 62nd Street and 37th Avenue, at around 3:30 a.m., Tuesday.
According to officials, the blaze started as a one-alarm fire but quickly turned into a two-alarm fire. Upon arrival, crews could see flames and smoke billowing from the roof, which collapsed.
They believe the building had been burning for a while before anyone even noticed it was on fire.
“Warehouse districts – there’s not a lot of traffic flow at night,” said Hialeah Fire Capt. David Rodriguez. “So when the crews got here, the building was already fully involved.”
No one was inside the building at the time of the collapse.
Rodriguez said crews fought the fire defensively from the outside to prevent it from spreading.
“It looks like it’s been spreading in the building,” Rodriguez said. “We’re controlling the exposures, but yeah, it starts to calm down and then it flares back up. Whatever fire load is there is real, real heavy. We’re very concerned about some railroad tracks to the east side, which we have that protected and then the surrounding warehouses is what we’re protecting at this time.”
Firefighters said the fire load was tremendous, meaning the warehouse was filled with items that fueled the flames.
“It’s not easy to get something like that out,” said Rodriguez. “The wind conditions don’t help.”
The county assisted in battling the flames. The fire has since been contained.
The fire took several hours to put out. As a result, water flooded the surrounding warehouses.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
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