Three firefighters rescued at commercial structure fire
Jay R. Jordan, Houston Chronicle with permission
HOUSTON (Houston Chronicle) – Firefighters continue to battle a “stubborn” fire inside the basement of a downtown Houston corner store, even hours after their first response.
The fire broke out about 8 a.m. in the basement of Main Street Market at 901 Main. Houston firefighters were called to the store to quell the flames and almost immediately pulled a second alarm for more resources.
While there are no discernable flames inside the basement, something is burning there that is causing a massive amount of smoke to carry throughout the building and into the downtown airspace. Firefighters were checking the building for any other source of fire and couldn’t find any, according to Houston Fire Department spokesperson Abby Ramos.
Some of those crews who were in the top floors of the low-rise building called a mayday after one firefighter suffered from heat exhaustion, Ramos said. That three-person crew climbed to the roof of the building and was escorted off the building inside a ladder bucket.
The firefighter was taken to a nearby hospital and is in stable condition, according to Fire Chief Sam Peà±a.
He described the fire as “stubborn,” referencing how long it is taking firefighters to tap out.
After the mayday call, fire department leaders on the ground decided to pull all firefighters out of the building and developed a strategy to flood the basement with water in hopes of quelling whatever is burning. That process was still ongoing as of noon.
Around the same time, fire crews and police evacuated the entire 900 block of Main Street, which includes a few shops and an apartment building.
Metro has suspended a portion of the red line Light Rail, which runs through the heart of downtown along Main Street.
