Apartment building under construction catches fire in Downtown Boise. No one injured
Boise firefighters responded to a major blaze at an apartment building under construction on Thursday night, according to city officials.
Smoke and flames could be seen coming from the roof of the Jules and 3rd apartment building at 2nd and Myrtle streets in Downtown Boise just before 7 p.m. About 40 firefighters were on the scene with the help of Boise Police and Ada County Sheriff’s Office, said Boise Fire Battalion Chief Steve Rasulo. No one was injured and no one was evacuated, according to Rasulo.
The fire appears to have started on the eighth floor of the building — its top floor — and extended to the roof on the southeast corner of the complex. Construction workers at the scene Thursday told the Statesman that they were preparing to go home when they noticed the flames. They said no one was in the building when it caught fire. The apartment units that burned had been completed, officials told the Statesman.
First responders faced a few complications at the scene. One nearby fire hydrant didn’t contain water, Rasulo said, so crews had to run water up via ladder trucks.
Officials also said that because of the height of the building and its construction, there was limited access to the roof. Initial first responders called to increase the presence to more than a dozen Boise Fire units in the city, and many were still at the scene Thursday night to ensure that no remnants of the fire burned in the building’s materials, Rasulo said.
In a news release, spokesperson Haley Williams said that seven engines, three truck companies and 15 units from Boise Fire wound up responding. Fire crews were able to get control of the blaze quickly, according to the release — by 7:08 p.m., after the first engine arrived at 6:40 p.m.
Rasulo said the apartment building didn’t have proper fire protections in place. ”With all the construction that we have going on, the potential is there that these types of fires will happen,” he said.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, Williams said in the Boise Fire release.
Several roads were closed by authorities when they first arrived at the scene. By 8 p.m., the far right lane of Myrtle Street was open, but Broad Street and the remaining four lanes of Myrtle were still closed between 2nd and 3rd streets. Some roads remained blocked off as of 9:30 p.m., according to the release.
Jules and 3rd is owned by Boise Caddis, a subsidiary of River Caddis Development Corp. of East Lansing, Michigan. Last year, officials said construction on the apartment’s 173 units was expected to be completed by July of this year.
This story was originally published March 4, 2021 at 7:21 PM.
