Abandoned downtown house burns in substantial fire

SALT LAKE CITY — An abandoned home in downtown Salt Lake caught fire on Saturday night causing multiple road closures and power line collapse. Details like the cause of the fire and whether there were civilians inside are still being investigated.

Around 10:30 p.m. on Saturday night, the Salt Lake City Fire Department arrived with 40 fire fighters at 664 E 300 S to fight a fire that was burning through the roof of an abandoned house. The structure has been abandoned for about 15 years and it was unclear to authorities at the scene who owns the property.

Division Chief, Dan Walker, detailed that the crews set up a defensive attack, fighting the fire from the exterior of the building only.

“It’s not worth it for us to put crews inside an abandoned structure because they’re just so dangerous — holes in the floors, easily [collapsible] rooms, things like that,” Walker said.

The fire took 45 minutes to extinguish from the outside. A team of fire fighters were cautiously sent inside and were unable to find anyone. Investigators were brought in after the fact to determine for sure nobody was in the building and the cause of the fire, given there is no gas or power being ushered on the premises.

Walker stated that there were no civilian injuries or firefighter injuries but that we would need to wait for investigators to say for sure there was nobody inside. It’s also unclear if the remaining structure will be knocked down or rebuilt.