Two San Antonio firefighters were injured early Wednesday while battling a stubborn fire that tore through a vacant, boarded-up apartment complex on the North Side, with one crew member falling through a weakened floor and another suffering burns to the hands. The blaze grew fast enough to push commanders from a second alarm to a third as flames spread through the building, forcing crews to retreat and fight it from outside.
Fox San Antonio reported the fire began just after 5:30 a.m. at the Sante Fe Apartments off Blanco Road near Gilbert Lane. Fire investigators were on scene, according to San Antonio Fire Department spokesperson Joe Arrington, as reported by CBS Austin.
Firefighters forced their way into the large, H-shaped building after finding heavy flames inside, Arrington said, because crews could not rule out someone sheltering inside the vacant structure. He noted that firefighters must assume someone may be inside a vacant, boarded-up apartment complex like this one, and that police were aware unhoused individuals sometimes frequent the area, per Arrington's account relayed by CBS Austin.
Floor Gives Way Beneath a Firefighter
The danger turned physical when a crew checking the stability of the floor felt it collapse beneath one firefighter, Arrington said. That firefighter was rescued without serious injuries and did not require hospitalization, according to the reporting from Fox San Antonio. A second firefighter suffered minor burns to the hands and was taken to a hospital for treatment and evaluation as a precaution, the station reported.
The floor collapse prompted commanders to upgrade the response to a second alarm, and the fire was later upgraded again to a third alarm as flames continued spreading through the complex, per the same Fox San Antonio account. Parts of the floor and roof collapsed as the fire burned on, and firefighters were preparing to use ladder trucks to pour water through openings in the damaged roof rather than risk sending crews back inside.
A Stubborn Fire Burning in the Walls
Early indications suggested the fire began on the first floor and spread to the second floor and other sections of the building, per Arrington. He said crews may ultimately have to fight the blaze entirely defensively, and acknowledged that firefighters may never be able to safely reenter the extensively damaged building.
Crews had not found anyone inside the building, and authorities had received no reports of anyone missing, CBS Austin reported. More than 40 SAFD units were responding as of 7:15 a.m., according to KSAT, while Fox San Antonio's count put the overall response at approximately 150 firefighters and additional support crews. Firefighters were expected to remain at the scene for several hours, and drivers were warned to expect traffic delays along Blanco Road during the morning commute.
Cause Still Under Investigation
Fire investigators were expected to enter the building once the flames are extinguished and the structure is deemed safe, with officials saying it will be up to investigators to determine where and how the fire started. Whether the fire was intentionally set had not been determined, and the investigation remains ongoing.
Fires in long-vacant, boarded-up buildings carry outsized risk for firefighters because poorly maintained, deteriorated vacant structures may collapse earlier in a fire, according to the National Fire Protection Association, which notes that fires in vacant properties account for a disproportionate share of firefighter injuries. A separate federal analysis from the U.S. Fire Administration found that the majority of fire-related firefighter injuries, 87%, occurred in structure fires. Those risks played out with tragic clarity in Kansas last December, when four career firefighters were seriously injured after a section of living-room floor failed and dropped them into a basement during an early-morning fire in a vacant, single-story residence, according to FireRescue1. A subsequent federal safety investigation concluded that the building's vacant, deteriorated condition significantly contributed to that collapse.
