Last Updated on December 16, 2022, 8:14 AM | Published: December 16, 2022
OKLAHOMA CITY — By the time first crews of the Oklahoma City Fire Department arrived at a two-story office building Thursday the whole building was already being consumed by fire.
The 12,000-square-foot, two-story office buidling was one of three matching office buidlings along the north frontage road of I-44/N.W. 39th street in the 2400 block between Penn and May avenues.
“Flames were already breaking through the roof when we first arrived,” Battalion Chief David Meyer told Free Press at the scene. “This one wasn’t normal. It was so fully involved that we didn’t try to go inside and attack it. Our goal then was to stop fire from destroying the building next to it.”
“It collapsed sooner than most of them do,” said Meyer. “If we had gotten here a little earlier we probably would have tried to move in and attack the fire, which could have been a dangerous situation.”
Fire did catch for a brief time under the eve of the building built unusually close just a few feet away.
But, firefighters stopped the fire from spreading and contained damage to the building already burning. The third office building was not affected.
“Smoke was drifting across I-44 for a while and so we were concerned about traffic safety,” said Battalion Chief Benny Fulkerson, Public Information Officer for OKCFD.
No crashes were reported along that stretch due to the smoke.
Complete destruction
Unusual for a fire in the core of OKC with an abundance of firefighting coverage, the two-story office building burned completely into the ground with very little debris left standing.
Later in the morning, Oklahoma City Fire investigators were still combing through the white ash and small debris that was left from the fire, trying to gain clues on the cause of the unusually-hot fire.
County records show that the entire property, including the three matching office buildings constructed in 1972, is owned by C. J. Morony of Berkeley, California.
Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.
