More than 60 firefighters tried to save a St. Matthews strip mall from burning to the ground Monday, but none of them were from the St. Matthews Fire Department.
Johnny Wong, who who works right next door to the strip mall that was destroyed by the fire at China 1, witnessed the fire.
"I went across the street, and when I realized that there was no firefighters at the scene after a few minutes, I was getting worried,” he said. "I was thinking, 'Where are they at? They're supposed to be here in a few minutes.'"
The St. Matthews Fire Department is less than one mile from the scene, but the business is in the Louisville fire protection district. As a result, St. Matthews firefighters could only watch, even as reinforcement was brought in from as far away as west Louisville.
"It's just kind of frustrating when I heard it, because it was a second alarm fire, which I knew right off the bat was a big fire," St. Matthews Fire Chief William Seng said.