NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — The New Orleans Fire Department began fending off a fire near the Mississippi River Bridge on Monday evening.
The fire was located in a two-story building 1100 block of St. Charles Avenue, near the Pontchartrain Expressway and leading to the bridge. According to NOFD, the building houses a business, Avenue Scooters, on the first floor with apartments upstairs.
Initial reports indicated people may have been trapped inside the structure, however, when fire crews arrived just before 9 p.m., residents informed emergency responders that all the apartment residents escaped without harm.
Firefighters were able to enter the back of the business, which then had heavy amounts of smoke coming out. They then found the seat of the fire.
Just after 9 p.m., a second alarm was called due to the state of the building’s construction, along with the fire’s close range of a business next door.
Because the business had fully-fueled scooters inside, crews had to be cautious of how they approached the fire. The blaze had also spread through the ceiling and onto the second floor.
NOFD says crews used an “aggressive interior attack” of the fire, successfully gaining control of the scene at 9:40.
Nearly 20 fire units responded to the scene with 40 crew members.
No injuries were reported from the fire. Its cause remains under investigation.
