Update on 3rd Alarm fire in a downtown apartment complex. Vine Street Loft Apartments 101 2nd Avenue Des Moines, Iowa Alarm Time: 5:28 AM
Des Moines firefighters remain on the scene of a Third Alarm fire that consumed nearly an entire city block in the downtown Des Moines area.
Des Moines firefighters responded to the apartment complex fire after several callers in the downtown area reported smoke and fire in the 2nd and Court Avenue area at approximately 5:30 AM. The first arriving Incident Commander, District Chief Dan Burke, immediately requested a Third Alarm assignment and the call back of Staff personnel to report to the scene as the fire already appeared to be out of control.
Firefighters set up a defensive attack on the fire in an attempt to protect exposures (surrounding buildings) and prevent spread of the fire to those surrounding structures. After several hours, firefighters were able to get the fire under control; however, smoke, heat and water had damaged several surrounding occupancies.
District Chief, Walt Whitlatch, reported the fire to be under control at approximately 10:30 AM. Whitlatch also reported that firefighters would remain on the scene throughout the night and continue to put water on hot spots and smoldering debris and maintain control of the scene.
Fire Investigators have not yet released information relating to the cause of this fire. Damages have been estimated to be well over a million dollars. Senior Fire Investigator, Brad Fousek, reported the following:
"It is still too early to speculate what caused this fire to ignite. We have not yet been able to rule out the causes of electrical, mechanical, accidental, or arson. We will meet at the scene again tomorrow (Sunday) at approximately 11:00 AM and examine areas of the fire that were inaccessible today because of fire conditions."
Additional information will be released as it is made available.
