Morning fire in East St. Louis ‘really took off,’ chief says

Crews battled a fire early Monday morning after flames broke out in a vacant apartment building just before 7 a.m. in East St. Louis.

Fire Chief Jason Blackmon said about 8 a.m. they believed no one was in the building, in the 2600 block of Louisiana Boulevard, at the time of the fire and confirmed there had been no injuries.

He said crews got on scene and began an aggressive attack in the structure with what Blackmon approximates of 6-7 units.

“It really took off, but like I said crews came in and made a really aggressive attack,” he said.

Ameren Illinois was on scene and shut the power off, causing some temporary power outages for neighboring structures.

The fire was a one-alarm fire and no other fire departments were called in, Blackmon said. There were three trucks at the scene, including a ladder truck.

Blackmon said it was too soon Monday morning to know what caused the fire.

When asked about the amount of smoke, Blackmon said it was a “typical fire.”

This story was originally published November 20, 2017 at 7:51 AM with the headline "Morning fire in East St. Louis ‘really took off,’ chief says."