KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The seven firefighters injured in a warehouse fire Thursday in northeast Kansas City, Missouri, are expected to be okay.
Of the three transported to the hospital, two fire fighters were released and one fire fighter will stay for monitoring overnight.
Firefighters rarely see a four-alarm alarm fire, but when it does happen, it's all hands on deck — 160 to be exact.
"Being the nosy person I am, I peeked through the blinds, like why are all the fire trucks coming down here?" said Marilyn Strode, an employee at Magnum, which is next door to where the fire occurred.
The smoke from the massive blaze could be seen from all over the Kansas City area.
"No, (I've) never seen anything this bad, this big," Strode said. "Some friends were seeing it in Clay County and Excelsior."
Strode saw the flames and pulled out her phone.
"I looked, and all of a sudden all the flames coming up, and whew, you could feel the heat coming clear over here," she said.
There isn't much left of the business involved. They lost a roof, windows were blown out and just feet away from where Strode works, some cars didn't get off the lot soon enough.
"Our biggest take away is everyone talked to each other and there was great communication on the fire ground," KCFD spokesperson Jason Spreitzer said. "Other people went to the hospital and they're walking away from that hospital and they're able to see their families."
KCFD might need to fix up or replace a fire engine and a ladder, but collectively there's relief that they're replacing things, and not people.
"No, no, (I'm) never going to forget that one," Strode said.
KCFD will have crews on the scene throughout the night checking out hot spots. Right now, it's still an ongoing investigation and the cause is unknown.
—
