Columbia fire chief: Fire on I-70 Drive SE 85% contained, no injuries reported, cause of fire not yet determined
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A fire was reported Tuesday at a building in the 5100 block of Interstate 70 Drive SE in Columbia.
The Columbia Fire Department was called to the building at 6:45 p.m. and it was 80% contained by 8:20 p.m., according to Columbia Fire Chief Clayton Farr Jr. The containment was upgraded to 85% at 9:48 p.m. The house continues to burn, according to officials at the scene. Crews will be on the scene for awhile, according to officials.
No injuries have been reported so far. The cause of the fire is under investigation, Farr said. The building was described by Farr as a residential structure that was "partly a log cabin."
Boone County Joint Communications stated Interstate 70 Drive SE is closed from Upland Creek Road to St. Charles Road due to fire personnel in the area. It was not determined how long roads leading up to the location of the fire would be closed.
"Right now, the fire is about 80% contained and we're very comfortable now that we don't have any risk of the fire spreading," Farr said around 8:20 p.m. "So we've just got crews that are continuing to extinguish the fire and monitor the conditions around the structure."
Farr did not confirm if the house was lived in by a resident. He said it could take awhile for the investigation to be completed due to the extent of the damage.
"We don't have all of those details just yet," he said. "We've got a fire investigator who's responding to the scene. We hope to have those details a little bit further. But that's gonna take some time there was quite a bit of damage to the structure so the investigation could be somewhat protracted and may take us a little bit of time.
About an acre of a wooded area also burned as a result of the fire.
CFD working a fully involved residential structure fire. No injuries reported. Fire under investigation. Fire in the area of 1-70 Dr SE pic.twitter.com/P68i1n2rLh
— Columbia_Fire (@Columbia_Fire) July 5, 2023
Farr indicated there was some water supply issues because of the location, which led to the department calling in tankers from the Boone County Fire Protection District.
"So water supply was a challenge for us in this areas. We don't have fire hydrants that are necessarily close," he said. "So because of that, we made contact with the Boone County Fire Protection District and they were able to send us several water tankers. We were able to use that to keep up as much as we could with the fire load and get the fire mostly contained."
A neighbor told ABC 17 News they drove by and saw a house fully engulfed. An ABC 17 News reporter saw a number of first responders on the scene.
BCJC Urgent: I-70 Drive southeast closed from Upland Creek Rd to St Charles Rd closed due to fire personnel in the area. Choose alternate route.
— Boone County Joint Communications (@BCJC911) July 4, 2023
This story is developing.
