Warming fire may be to blame for massive fire that burned two historic buildings near 18th and Vine
Channel: Best Of Youtube
Date: 02/02/2017

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas City firefighters continue to battle flames that engulfed two historical buildings, which were both on the city's dangerous buildings list,  early Thursday morning.

The fire broke out around 4:50 a.m. one block from 18th and Vine along Vine Street at building directly across the street from Club Mardi Gras, a jazz club. As of 7 a.m. flames could still be seen coming from one of the buildings.
By 5:36 a.m. the fire had spread to a second building, and crews were trying to prevent the flames from spreading to an old "movie facade," which was connected. As of 6:30 a.m. firefighters said they did not believe the fire would spread any further and some of the crews retreated.
The roofs of the burned out buildings are flat tar pitched, which helped fuel the fire as embers floated down on the roof. Trees and grass growing on the roof also hurt the situation, firefighters say.

"It was going top to bottom, front to back, and we showed up we started fly piping to get it knocked down," Mike Cashen with the Kansas City Fire Department said. "But the embers got up and got in this other building, which is pretty dilapidated, as well. The roof membrane was already broken through several places. There's grass and trees growing on the roof so the embers got down inside and got it going."

Cashen says firefighters had to fight the fire from outside because going inside is too dangerous. He says when temperatures are below freezing, ice becomes a problem, but he adds that crews on the scene have ice melt to help prevent slippery conditions for crews on the scene.


Historical significance of the burning buildings
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