Oakland Park Storage Facility Goes Up In Flames
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OAKLAND PARK (CBSMiami) -- The state fire marshal is investigating the cause of a warehouse fire in Oakland Park.
The warehouse is near NE 2 Avenue and 33 St where several businesses were damaged.
Oakland Park firefighters said flames started around 1:15 am Monday morning.
Someone called 911 and multiple agencies responded to the 2-alarm fire.
Oakland Park Fire Chief Stephen Krivjanik says the fire originated in a unit where a van caught fire. While fighting the flames, the fire chief ordered firefighters to back away from the building briefly for their safety.
"There was some roofing material and an LP tank that vented and caught on fire itself and eventually caused the fire spread and the roof to collapse," explained Chief Krivjanik.
There was damage to eight storage units. Out of those, the roof collapsed in two of them.
"It's kind of hard because you know that it's your livelihood to make money for the holidays for your family and children, said cabinet builder Michael Clancy.
Clancy works at a business where workers build cabinets at the warehouse but his workspace is damaged from smoke and water.
"Clean-up and get back to it and start over," said Clancy.
A ladder truck spent hours spraying the roof and crews cut holes in the doors to units to help get to the fire and for it to vent.
The fire chief says people have to be careful when loading up these storage units.
"Please be very careful what you put in these. The hazardous materials you store in these and the way you modify these could up being a fatality for a firefighter," explained Chief Krivjanik.
A friend of the owner of the van also spoke to CBS4 News explaining how he got a call in the middle of the night and rushed over to check on his friend.
"It's a big storage, it's a double storage. He had like two cars there, one caught on fire. They're going to investigate what happened," David Valle said.
Nobody was hurt including a dog, which was inside one of the units.
