Salt Lake City Fire fight flames in downtown SLC structure fire
Aug 13, 2023, 8:08 AM | Updated: 8:12 am
A Salt Lake City Fire Department engine parked next to the Salt Lake City and Council Building. Photo: Paul Nelson.
SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City Fire is looking into the cause of a commercial building fire in downtown Salt Lake City early Saturday morning.
Salt Lake Fire Captain Shaun Mumedy said they were called to the fire on 700 S. around 2:15 a.m.
Mumedy said they found the building to be vacant so they took a defensive approach, fighting the flames from the outside to minimize possible harm to the firefighters. He said they had close to 40 firefighters battling the flames and no one was injured.
Mumedy said it took about three hours to control the fire from spreading, which was longer than normal for them.
“Because we went defensive, getting that under control took a lot longer,” he said. “On a typical house fire or something like that, we usually have an under control probably within the first 20 to 30 minutes.”
The building is still intact, Mumedy explained, and the two buildings on either side of the building received no flame damage.
He said 700 S. between State St. and 200 E. was closed until 8 that morning. Crews lingered on the site on and off the rest of that day, monitoring for potential flare-ups.
“Anytime we go defensive like that, we tend to stick around and kind of continue to monitor that structure for at least another 12 hours,” he explained.
