Warehouse Burns to the Ground in Downtown San Angelo

An old warehouse building on 4^th St., between Chadbourne and Oakes Streets, caught fire just after 6 a.m. this morning. Tall flames engulfed the building before firefighters were able to extinguish most of the fire.

As the firefighters were mopping up the fire, the wall on the eastern side of the building collapsed. Firefighters intentionally collapsed the other walls.

The throughway of 4^th St. is closed between Chadbourne and Oakes this morning. Police warned about visibility issues along Houston Harte.

As more information is available, we will post it here.

Update 7:30 a.m.

The fire was a two-alarm fire, Assistant Fire Chief Scott Farris said. The call happened at 5:53 a.m. Thursday morning.

The structure destroyed the storage building for R.S. Cabinet Shop, Farris said. The structure’s roof did collapse as firefighters were performing their initial attack.

Farris said the initial strategy of the firefighters was to protect all exposures (the adjacent buildings) to prevent the fire from spreading into other buildings in the block. Farris said it looks like nothing outside of the storage building was touched.

The structure is located in a very old section of town. Farris estimates that along the brick streets there, the buildings were built in the late 1800s or early 1900s. This is an area of town where the San Angelo Fire Department accomplishes pre-fire planning because of the nature of the structures there.

“The guys were really familiar with what was there,” Farris said.

The owner of the cabinet shop thanked the firefighters for saving the storefront of his business. Farris said the owner told him since the business operations area of the business was on the other end, he will be able to remain open.

As firefighters were making their initial ingress into the building, an overhang collapsed on them. Two firefighters were sent to Shannon Medical Center to be checked out. Both injured firefighters were walking after being hit by the small collapse, Farris said. He was hopeful there were no serious injuries.

As of 7:15 a.m., firefighters were mopping up and collapsing walls outward to allow for a complete fire investigation by the Fire Marshal’s office.