O'Fallon firefighters took a defensive operation at Bill’s Service Center warehouse Wednesday.
The fire was through the roof when crews approached the area, KMOV reported.
“Because of the volume of fire and the potential hazards that were in the building, structure was unsafe when we pulled up to send any of our firefighters inside of so chose a defensive position," explained Fire Protection District Battalion Chief Brian Moore.
“We wanted to make sure we took precautions to have a safe collapse zone set-up around the building that way if and when the building collapsed, which it did, our firefighters were safe,” he said.
Explosions likely came from lawn mower gas tanks, he said, adding that there was a partial collapse.
