Two overnight East St. Louis fires appear suspicious, assistant chief says
East St. Louis fire crews battled two suspicious fires Tuesday and into the early-morning hours Wednesday.
The first fire at the pallet yard at 17th Street and Broadway Avenue was called into the fire department at at 5:07 p.m., said East St Louis Assistant Fire Chief George McClellan.
McClellan said the tires and wooden pallets that were stacked up in the yard were on fire. Firefighters had to use a portable water pump and a ladder truck to suppress the flames, McClellan said.
Firemen worked approximately four and a half hours at the scene. There is no electricity at the pallet yard, which is what makes the cause of the fire suspicious, McClellan said.
Firefighter later battled a blaze at a tire and auto repair shop on 17th Street and Converse Avenue. McClellan said firemen could see the blaze from their north Central Avenue engine house, which is just a block away from the scene.
Though firefighters were on the scene in minutes, McClellan said, they had trouble accessing the structure because of security bars on the windows and door.
“They pried the bars open to get inside. The fire started in the front of the building where the bars were,” he said.
By that time, the heat was too intense to enter.
“Fire was also in the rear of the building. It burned into the roof. We had to use a master stream and attack lines,”McClellan said.
The building was completely destroyed. The roof collapsed, McCllellan said.
