I'm all the way downtown and the air is thick with smoke from this fire. Really reeks.
I'm all the way downtown and the air is thick with smoke from this fire. Really reeks.
I drove to NW 63rd and Grand and got to see the towering inferno before turning into Nichols Hills. It looks like every light and siren emergency vehicle within 20 miles is there.
Listening to the incident on the scanner radio app, it sounds like the fire has gotten into another building
Seeing aerial photographs, hard to imagine this not being a total loss.
Big chunks of the building have collapsed and everything else is either charred or filled with water.
I’m at Whole Foods. This is completely insane. Never have seen a fire like this in OKC
Reminds me of the Covell village apartment fire in north edmond about 12 years ago. It was similar situation with apartments being built and not yet complete of large scale single building like this. Entire complex went up into flames and was total loss and later rebuilt.
It's a Total loss. All of it. Doesn't look like they will be able to save any of it.
This is crazy...
Retired firefighter here. Its toast. They are in defensive mode that means surround and drown the fire. Basically keep it from spreading and just drown it. Its toast. When the fire is attacked from outside the building its to prevent spread to other structures you have written the building off. Risk alot to save alot. Risk a little to save a little. If the building is beyond saving you dont risk firefighter lives by going inside. ok by 2 cent post on firefighter safety.
Bright side, it was not yet occupied so no one lost their home or life.
It is good no one was living there, and lost their valuables,.or worse their life. The building can be rebuilt, but lives can't be. I just hope they decide to rebuild this, as it was a high-quality development in a burgeoning area.
Wood frame construction, the building should have fire sprinklers. My question is was the system in operational or was it down for some reason. Also what was the cause that allowed the fire to get a foot hold? Any penetrations through firewalls etc. that should not have been there? Lots of questions which hopefully will be answered in the future. The public might not see but will be published in fire service magazines.
Agree. There may have been worse fires in OKC but I don't recall anything like this since the Murrah bombing.
Thank God people were not in there, but it's still just a major bummer. There have already been years of construction to get to this point, so close to opening, and now who knows what will happen with the property now?
1. There will be lawsuits and insurance settlements to sort out. That could take a long, long time.
2. The roofing material used appeared impervious to water; it simply could not be extinguished. What material was this? News 9 referred to it as a rubberized material. Whatever it is / was, it acted like a flame accelerant. No bueno. One wonders how many buildings feature this roofing material across the US right now! One also imagines it will quickly fall out of favor.
3. Even if the building had an active sprinkler system, it doesn't seem like it would have done any good with the roof just continuing to ignite over and over and over.
4. What was on the cusp of being a fully actualized, vibrant corridor is now going to take a major step back now. There will be a massive smoking crater in that huge space for quite a while.
Question for Pete and others in the know: was this the biggest of all the recent apartment developments? It just looks huge from the aerial view.
Just a total bummer.
I’m guessing the sprinkler system wasn’t active yet…seems pretty unlikely it would burn out of control if it was. I don’t think the roofing was any different than anything used on other similar apartment buildings…would imagine it was doing its job but it’s hard to put out a fire in a large commercial building if the sprinklers aren’t running.
The fire official was quoted as saying that the flames on the material were not going out no matter how much water they put on it. It was also referred to as a rubberized material. Flames just continuing to reignite in sections that already burned, regardless how much water was put on it, was demonstrated by the news coverage. Maybe the sprinklers would have limited the fire to the roof and the top floor but there was no putting that roof out tonight, and you are correct, the sprinklers were not active.
Did the fire start at the Torchy’s?
It's still burning, they are just waiting for it to burn out and collapse, just heard on the news. Bummer, was looking forward to this development. OKC can't catch a break, geez.
Still smoldering this morning:
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