Flames damage tire shop and homes on St. Claude Ave.

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Early Wednesday (Sept. 27) around 1:19 a.m., the Orleans Parish Communications District (OPCD) received a 911 call reporting a building fire in a commercial structure at the corner of St. Claude Ave and Louisa St.

Dispatched at 1:20 a.m., the first New Orleans Fire Department (NOFD) Fire Operations unit arrived on the scene at 1:25 a.m.

Upon arrival, a one-story commercial structure housing a tire shop at 3201 St. Claude Ave, was already heavily involved in flames. The fire had already extended to two abandoned single-family homes in the 1100 block of Louisa St. when NOFD personnel arrived. This prompted the request for a second alarm at 1:29 a.m. The two properties in the rear of the original fire building had been abandoned for years and were already structurally compromised. They both collapsed quickly during fire suppression operations.

A third dwelling, an occupied single-story duplex at 1111-13 Louisa St., suffered significant fire damage to the right side of the property, the roof and fire extension into the attic. A fourth exposed dwelling, located at 3213-15 St. Claude Ave., received fire damage to its roof and the rear of the property as the fire burned intensely, spreading in two different directions.

A third alarm was requested at 1:51 a.m., as firefighters struggled to suppress the heavy fuel load of tires and other petrol-chemical-based products associated with this type of business.

21 NOFD Fire Operations apparatuses and support vehicles carrying 60 NOFD personnel responded to the incident. The New Orleans Police Department assisted with diverting vehicular traffic on both sides of St. Claude Ave.,

Entergy also assisted with incident mitigation by deactivating power lines in the immediate vicinity so that NOFD apparatuses could use aerial equipment to flow water on the buildings from above.

This incident was placed under control at 3:27 a.m., and there were no injuries reported at the time of this release.

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