(WSAZ/WKYT) – Sitting at home across from an old rail yard, neighbors near Raceland watched from the porch as a fire quickly spread.
Britani Vance was home when the fire started.
I had brought up some clothes that I had in the dryer, and I brought them up and I was going to fold them, and I looked out and I seen this like black smoke,” Vance said. “Yeah, and I seen flames a little bit too.”
First responders say demolition work on a building and former paint shop caused the fire to start. Neighbors said they heard a small explosion and saw flames coming through the smokestacks.
“It just sounded like cracking noises, but then it kind of reminded me of like gunshots,” Vance said. “But it was just kind of crackling, and I thought, what is that sound?”
Raceland Fire Chief Justin Howell said Modern Metals owns the building and some material caught fire during demolition work to revamp the warehouse.
“It’s kind of a first for me, you know, a big warehouse fire,” Howell said. “Of course, I work in the industry, so I’ve seen some big industrial fires but in the municipal world that’s a big fire.”
Howell said 14 fire departments responded and used 100,000 gallons of water from a tanker.
“The wind definitely didn’t play it any favors. The first crew we got in made a good first stop against the wind, and it was a battle after that just to try to extinguish hot spots and hidden fire,” he said.
Howell said it was a challenge, but with great collaboration between departments, there were no injuries and the building could be saved.
For related coverage >>> Crews respond to fire at rail yard