SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio firefighters believe someone had a hand in starting a fire inside a vacant building early Friday morning.
They were called to the 3600 block of S. Presa just before 5 a.m. and found flames and smoke inside what appeared to be a former business.
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“It was very heavily charged with smoke but very little contents, so it looks like it had been burning for a while,” said Battalion Chief John Castillo with SAFD.
Crews were able to knock down the flames quickly. However, they spent some time searching for the source of the heavy smoke.
At one time, firefighters had to scale a ladder to climb onto the roof.
They also had to use a saw to cut through burglar bars that surrounded the building.
Castillo said they were attempting to open up another area that crews could use to escape if they needed to exit the building in a hurry.
Still, it appeared someone before them had found a way around the burglar bars, specifically whomever started the fire.
“It looked like people had been living there in the back half of the structure for some time. We found a lot of mattresses, a makeshift kitchen in there,” Castillo said.
Like many other buildings across the city that have burned this year, the subject of this fire was supposed to be vacant.
Castillo said although no firefighters were injured, these types of fires put them at unnecessary risk.
Vacant buildings, he said, can present unknown dangers to them.
“These are a little bit more frustrating on our end, sending our firefighters in there to the unknown, really,” he said.
Earlier this year, Fire Chief Charles Hood expressed similar concerns and talked about the need for the city to change the way it handles abandoned properties.