SALT LAKE CITY — Firefighters from multiple agencies have responded to a four-alarm at an under-construction apartment building in the Sugar House area.
Capt. Anthony Stowe with the Salt Lake City Fire Department said approximately 70 firefighters have responded to the area of 1040 East and 2220 South.
He asked members of the public to avoid the area and said hundreds of people have been evacuated from nearby buildings.
Some of the evacuated residents told KSL TV’s Matt Rascon that the under-construction building is part of the Sugar Alley project.
The burning building is unoccupied and Stowe said the flames are burning scaffolding and covers on the structure’s exterior, which are highly flammable.
Salt Lake City police tweeted that “there are concerns the building on fire will collapse.”
No injuries have been reported and the fire’s cause is under investigation. Capt. Tony Stowe said crews believe no one was inside the building, which he described as a largely open-frame structure that seemed to still be under construction. The open-frame construction materials seemed to be rapidly feeding flames, making for a “very active” fire, he said.
About 70 fire personnel had responded to the massive blaze as of about midnight Wednesday, Stowe said, including three ladder trucks.
At the time, those ladder units were working in sync to shoot water up to 110 feet in the air, aimed at flames that could be seen spitting out from the building’s top floors, according to footage released by the department.
“So far, it doesn’t seem to be extending to any lower floors,” Stowe said at about midnight of the blaze.
As a precaution, Salt Lake City fire crews began evacuating people from adjacent buildings as of about midnight as the “high-danger” fire continued to burn overnight, Stowe said.
Salt Lake City police reported at about 12:45 a.m. that they were assisting fire crews at the scene.
At 11:11 p.m., one Twitter user, Amanda Lee, posted a photo of the fire, taken from a building across from the scene. At the time, smoke could be seen pouring out from the opposing, open-frame structure, and a fire department vehicle could be seen stationed on the ground below.
Over the next 30 minutes, in subsequent Twitter posts, Lee shared video of the growing fire, in which crews could be seen attempting to douse flames with water.
Attempts to reach Lee late Tuesday were unsuccessful. But Lee later reported on Twitter at about 12:50 a.m. Wednesday that they had since evacuated from their neighboring vantage point and were OK, noting that embers could be seen falling in the area “even a few blocks away.”
The cause of the blaze was not immediately known. Police and fire officials overnight advised people to avoid the scene.