NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Multiple fire crews are battling a large building fire at 1900 Swift in North Kansas City.
41 Action News confirmed the Pioneer building caught fire Tuesday afternoon. It contains several businesses, including Alamar and Galls, a police and federal uniform supply store.
A North Kansas City spokeswoman said the initial call for smoke on a deck came in around 12:30 p.m. When fire crews arrived, they found smoke and fire.
After evacuating the building, crews did a preliminary search of the building and it appears to everyone made it out safely. No injuries have been reported.
North Kansas City Fire Chief Dave Hargis said firefighters extinguished the fire on the outside of the building.
Then, crews realized the fire had gotten into a void space. The fire traveled into the void space, and the windy conditions pushed it throughout the attic.
Firefighters tried to fight the blaze offensively for about 20 minutes before they had to switch to defensive.
North KCMO crews called Gladstone for support at about 12:40 p.m. and KCMO was called at about 12:50 p.m.
The fire chief said the cause of the fire is under investigation.
What started as smoke from a rooftop deck turned a North Kansas City building into an inferno Tuesday.
"It spread that fast--it was so fast --I couldn’t believe how fast that fire spread," Maria Pinon, who works in the building said.
Firefighters were called around lunchtime to the building at the corner of Armour and Swift.
The first crews searched and evacuated the structure. While they were able to extinguish the initial fire, the building’s design didn't help them.
"These old building often have two to three different ceilings, they have void space in there. Fire had traveled into that void space we were unable to access it from the roof or the second story of the building," North Kansas City Fire Chief Dave Hargis said.
Hargis added Tuesday’s high winds pushed the flames throughout the attic.
"The heat drove us back out and so we had to go outside for safety and for safety of the crews, we weren't going to be able to do anything from the inside," Hargis said.
As the flames lept and smoke billowed, workers from neighboring businesses were forced into the streets.
"There was a point in time where the firemen came into the building going door to door yelling to evacuate this building, evacuate now," Keith Phillips, who works next door said.
Tim Dolan, a financial advisor said a similar fire happened across the street happened more than two decades ago.
"Right behind that tree is the office I moved into for two years while they rebuilt our building and here I am now standing on the sidewalk watching that building on fire exactly like I was twenty-four, twenty -five years ago," Dolan said.
NKC firefighters are battling a fire at the pioneer office buildings located at armor and swift. pic.twitter.com/qgp4IQO5F7
— Jonathan goede (@jgkshb) May 8, 2018
WATCH: North Kansas City fire crews are continuing to attack the fire near Swift and Armour. @41actionnews pic.twitter.com/Nn5SVYt0Xp
— Ariel Rothfield KSHB (@arothfield) May 8, 2018
Shay Lawrenz watched the fire move from one corner of the building to the other. She told me she watched the blinds inside suddenly melt @41actionnews pic.twitter.com/w7sAoQ5wRq
— Ariel Rothfield KSHB (@arothfield) May 8, 2018
