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Dec. 02--Kansas City firefighters are battling a three-alarm fire in a long-vacant school in central Kansas City.
Firefighters had been called earlier this morning, about 9:30 a.m., to the building at 39th Street and Bruce Watkins Drive. They extinguished a second-floor fire and left.
But about three hours later, fire units were called back and reported heavy fire inside the structure. About 10 minutes after crews arrived, commanders ordered firefighters out of the building because of the possibility of collapsing debris.
A second alarm was called and additional units later were dispatched, bringing it up to a three-alarm response, according to Battalion Chief Joe Vitale.
He said that the three-story building's entire ceiling was burning and aerial trucks were being used to pour water on it from above.
Witnesses reported that smoke from the fire was visible several miles away.
Vitale said that no injuries had been reported. The cause of the first fire had not been determined, though it appeared "suspicious in nature," he reported.
The building just east of Bruce Watkins Drive once housed the Horace Mann School and later a private school, but it had been vacant for a number of years.
--Tony Rizzo, [email protected]
