SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio firefighters who arrived to a burning building early Thursday morning say the flames and smoke that were pouring out of it were only part of the challenge they faced.
The building in the 1300 block of Culebra Road, which was home to a sign shop, had a double roof which made it difficult for crews to reach all of the fire quickly.
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Assistant Chief Neil Ague with SAFD says the fire, which appeared to start toward the back of the building, had made its way into the attic and took off from there.
“We were attacking it from both ends, from the front and from the back, and it was just difficult to get into the attic spaces,” he said.
Firefighters got the first 911 calls shortly before 4 a.m., then continued battling flames for about two hours.
Every time it seemed they’d gotten the upper hand, the fire would spring back to life.
“It was pretty bad. I was really worried about my place,” said Eric Hernandez, who noticed the fire as he headed to his own business two doors away.
Hernandez said he was concerned about the flames reaching his property.
“I have a couple of cars in there and whatnot, you know, some other stuff that I store there,” he said. “I was, sort of, worried about it. But thankfully, thank God nothing happened.”
Firefighters also had concerns for a while that the fire might spread to buildings on either side of the sign shops, as well as to some homes behind it.
They say it came within about ten feet of the homes, but fire crews were able to keep it from doing any other damage.
No one was inside the business at the time and there were not reported injuries.
Fire investigators are trying to determine how the fire started.