7 Kansas City firefighters injured battling large warehouse fire

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Seven firefighters were injured as more than 160 firefighters from dozens of units battled a fire that consumed a wood pallet-building business.

Firefighters responded to burning warehouse near Monroe and Nicholson Avenues in Kansas City’s Northeast Industrial District shortly after 12 p.m. Thursday.

The fire department said three of the firefighters went to hospitals for treatment. Another four firefighters were treated at the scene.

Firefighters searched the building and then moved out of the building to tackle the fire.

“They moved into a defensive posture, meaning they put the ladder sticks up all the way to the top and extended them and we have a large amount of water,” Jason Spreitzer, KCFD, said.

A YouTube Shorts video from Brandon Wood shows a view of the fire smoke from the inside of an airplane over Kansas City.

“The whole yard is one gigantic flame for us. When I say that, I mean flames were shooting up as high as 100 feet in the air. Our crews are doing everything they can right now to make sure that all commercial properties and the residential properties, are safe,” Spreitzer said.

Firefighters are also busy trying to keep the flames from spreading to another building that sits east of the pallet warehouse.

“The heat of the flames is causing the metal siding on that business to melt,” Spreitzer said.

According to Spreitzer, the fire has to be at least 3,000 degrees to melt that type of siding.

The firefighters worked to protect the homes in the neighborhood. Spreitzer said the wind is not putting the homes in any danger as of early Thursday afternoon.

The fire is 2,500 feet by 2,500 feet according to Spreitzer. It is so large that black smoke can be seen from as far north as Liberty and as far south as Lee’s Summit.

Spreitzer said firefighters will have to fight the fire for hours before it is extinguished.

This is a developing story that will be updated as additional information is released.