Historic Evansville warehouse destroyed by fire

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) - The investigation continues into that massive warehouse fire on Morton Ave. in Evansville.

Evansville Fire Department crews were called to the warehouse around 4:30 a.m. Monday.

EFD Chief Mike Larson says the warehouse had storage items inside of it. Fire officials are investigating the cause of the fire along with the Indiana Fire Marshall.

Chief Larson also says no injuries have been reported. He says four other buildings, besides the warehouse were impacted by the fire.

It almost claimed the home of Evansville Garage Doors, a third-generation family business,

We spoke with the owner, Jeff Rothschild.

“The building, to me, is near and dear. I grew up in this building, when I was 12/13 years old I learned to drive on this property,” said Rothschild.

He says he’s grateful to firefighters for saving his business.

“We’ve got 50 people that work here with us and they’re all family. To have the business, the building, not survive anymore, that would’ve been a huge impact,” said Rothschild. “At the end of the day, it was the Evansville Fire Department that were real heroes... They’re just heroes. Those guys, the men and women, they work tirelessly to save our building.”

We also spoke with one of the folks in charge of North Side Auto Spring. He says insurance still has to investigate, but about three-quarters of the building was destroyed.

They say they’re a family company that’s been working on heavy machinery for over 100 years.

Another family was displaced from their home on Division street, though Larson says they’re back home.

However, people are being told to keep their distance from the structure.

“You would be surprised at how far the bricks can fly when those walls collapse, so it’s just really more for safety,” said Chief Larson.

You can find our coverage from Monday here. It includes some of the history of the building.

Here was the live update from fire officials Tuesday evening:

You can see live coverage from Tuesday night at 6 p.m. here:

You can watch our Tuesday morning coverage below:

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