An explosion at a Vancouver warehouse early Friday morning left the building structurally unsound, according to fire officials.
Firefighters were called to Powers Paper Company, 1700 W. 20th St., at about 3:45 a.m. for a report of a fire alarm, Vancouver Fire Department Firefighter and Spokesman Darrin Deming said.
When they arrived, they saw several large rollup doors had been blown off and there was smoke coming out of the doors, Deming said. No one was at the business at the time.
Sprinklers appeared to be controlling the fire, but crews upgraded the response to a structure fire and sent a team to the roof to survey the building, Deming said. That crew found sagging in the roof and that one of the walls was tilting away from the building.
“At that point, everything went defensive, we kept firefighters outside,” Deming said. “Basically we continued to support the sprinkler system going as a way of suppressing the fire.”
With help from Clark County Fire District 6, Deming said, firefighters brought the fire under control in about 30 minutes.