CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Firefighters are still on the scene trying to fully contain the File Pro warehouse fire that started Thursday afternoon and still burning well into this Friday.
The Corpus Christi Fire Department had to resort to calling the city's utility department to bring a backhoe to completely rip off the west wall of the warehouse.
CCFD Battalion Chief J.D. Johnson said that he and his team arrived shortly after 8 a.m. on Friday to help put out any hotspots from the fire, something he said will take some time to finish.
"Yeah, the building suffered heavy damage along with all its contents. And right now, we're just working to put out hot spots," he said.
Six employees were inside the warehouse when the fire broke out, but all of them were evacuated safely. With the building's size and over 200,000 boxes of paper files inside, CCFD Assistant Fire Chief Doug Matthijetz said the fire proved to be difficult to put out.
"It's very labor intensive. There's a lot of material in that building, very high stacked, very compact, a lot of papers that are packed in tight, so it just tends to smolder," he said.
Matthijetz was the first firefighter to arrive on the scene when the fire first began. He said that while the fire inside the building was large and they had to tip off one side of the building to best access the flames, the warehouse's sprinklers played a big role in containing those flames.
"The sprinklers did their job other wise it could've been a lot bigger fire where it's burning through the roof. We had to do a lot of damage to the building itself, just so we could get that fire, otherwise we'll never be able to get it out," he said.
Both CCFD officials expect the fire to continue anywhere from a few hours to a day. The cause of the fire is still unknown, but is currently under investigation.
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