MAPLEWOOD, Mo. -- Firefighters from several departments spent hours overnight Thursday battling a huge blaze at a three-story home that houses a dental office.
Then, five hours after the blaze was out, fire crews called for backup early Friday when the fire reignited and flames shot from the basement.
The original fire, which appears accidental, started near an oil-burning furnace in the basement. On Friday morning, the fire reignited when the 150-gallon oil tank in the basement leaked and found an ignition source, said Maplewood Fire Chief Terry Merrell.
Crews on Friday were filling the basement with foam to prevent another fire.
The fire was at Maplewood-Richmond Heights Family Dentistry, 3004 Sutton Boulevard. The site is at the corner of Flora Avenue, a couple blocks south of Manchester Road.
The fire call came out at 8:20 p.m. Thursday when a Maplewood police officer patrolling the area saw flames coming fromthe basement. Firefighters rushed to the house and heard that a person may be trapped inside.
When they went in, the floor started to collapse, and a Richmond Heights firefighters went out a window, injuring his shoulder. The injury was minor.
Merrell said firefighters determined no one was trapped inside. They managed to keep the fire from spreading to a nearby home. Merrell said the fire went to four alarms because he needed more firefighters and equipment. The fire was out at about 1 a.m. Friday, he said.
Early Friday, at 6 a.m., dispatchers said the fire had reignited, flames were coming from the basement and there was a report of a flammable liquid in the basement. Several crews were sent back to the scene.
Merrell said a crew of Maplewood firefighters had remained at the scene all night and were there when it reignited. Workers who had been hired to board up the home had just arrived when the fire in the basement rekindled.
Merrell said there were so many crevices in the basement that foam was the best way to make sure it didn't reignite again.
Arson investigators with the St. Louis County Police Department found nothing suspicious about the fire, Merrell said. They determined the fire that started Thursday night began near the oil-burning furnace in the basement.
Doug Clifford said the dental building has been in his family for decades. It is still owned by his mother.
His late father, Charles Clifford, was born at the house and operated the dental practice there before turning it over to his partner. Wayne Fisher, several years ago.
The house dated to the 1920s, Clifford said. It had originally been owned by his grandfather.
Clifford said the family still had many heirlooms stored on the second floor and in the attic that he suspected were destroyed by the blaze. Among them, he said, was a working TV that dated to the 1940s.
"If you were to walk up there you might have felt like you were going back in time and into a museum," Clifford said.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
