Update: Crews respond to 3-alarm fire in Murray

Firefighters responded to the scene of a blaze in a Murray storage unit on Monday, March 19, 2018. Photo: Gephardt Daily/Justin Fordham

MURRAY, Utah, March 19, 2018 (Gephardt Daily) — Firefighters responded to the scene of a two-alarm fire Monday afternoon in Murray, and soon had to call a third alarm.

The blaze, which was reported at about 3:30 p.m. at a storage facility at 5564 S. 300 West, created a plume of smoke that was visible from miles away.

Mike Dykman, assistant fire chief with Murray Fire Department, said the fire inspector had been at the facility and had just left when he saw the fire and called it in.

Dispatchers also received several calls from people in the area because of all the smoke and flames.

Dykman said crews had a couple of challenges in fighting the fire.

Getting into the personal storage units was difficult because of the security in place. Also, the structure has a common attic area, which enabled the flames to spread.

Crews fought the fire defensively, Dykman said.

Of the 24 units in the building, he said, “I think we saved about half of the units. We probably had 10 to 12 units involved. The other 10 to 12 may have had smoke damage.”

Dykman said there are no electrical or natural gas lines to the storage units.

“It happens a lot of times with units that don’t have power or natural gas, people will bring in generators and, you know, other equipment,” he said, adding that investigators probably will be on scene most of the night to determine the exact cause of the blaze.

Dykman said there was a report of one individual transported to Intermountain Medical Center as a result of the fire, but he had no details on that or on who may have been in the area.

The burning structure initially was called in as a two-alarm fire, but a third alarm was called “mostly for manpower,” Dykman said.

Some crews were being released as the fire was brought under control, while others expected to be at the scene for another few hours.

Personnel from Murray, Unified Fire, South Salt Lake Fire, Murray Power and Murray Police Department all assisted.

The fire was near both Interstate 15 and a TRAX line, and traffic was reportedly slowing on I-15 as curious drivers pulled over.

 

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