SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio fire crews who were battling a huge fire in an abandoned building downtown also had to struggle with a gas leak.
An underground gas line just outside the building, located in the 500 block of Urban Loop, apparently became damaged by the flames, then added extra fuel to the fire.
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“The main reason we couldn’t get to it was because of that gas main and the fire coming off of that,” said Captain Gabriel Ortega with the San Antonio Fire Department.
Crews responded to a call shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday and found huge flames coming from what had been a more than 17,000 square foot building.
The fire continued to rage throughout the morning, finally only dying down a little bit by daybreak Thursday.
Ortega said firefighters wouldn’t be able to put it out completely until crews with CPS Energy had capped the gas leak.
All that firefighters could do in the meantime was to work to keep the fire from spreading.
They poured water on it from aerial hoses above and sprayed it from hand-held hoses on the ground.
“It’s all part of the job,” Ortega said. “I mean, we know this building is abandoned. We’re not gonna risk people to get in there.”
There were no injuries reported as a result of the fire, and the official cause remains under investigation.
While briefing news crews late Wednesday night, Fire Chief Charles Hood said he suspected the fire may have been caused by homeless people who had gotten inside the boarded-up building.
The site held a lot of San Antonio history.
The building, which was constructed in the late 1800s, was home to a number of different businesses over the years, including a well-known brothel and, later, a home for boys.