BOISE, Idaho — Update: As of March 9, the cause of this fire is still undetermined. Accidental causes are suspected and investigators are continuing to work to determine the true cause.
Seven apartments in the complex sustained damage due to fire and water.
"We are proud of our firefighters. They have spent hours training, preparing, and honing their skills to enable them to respond effectively to a difficult fire such as this," said Deputy Chief of Operations, Brad Bolen.
Original story:
Multiple agencies responded to a fire at an unfinished apartment building in downtown Boise just after 6:30 pm Thursday evening.
Boise Fire told KTVB that there was a structure fire off of 2nd and Myrtle streets in downtown Boise. The department responded after getting a report of smoke and fire coming from the building.
The Ada County Courthouse is down the street from the intersection, near the Winco.
The Boise Fire Department tweeted that fire and smoke can be seen coming from the roof of the building, which is still currently under construction.
The fire was upgraded to a second alarm fire because the building is nine stories and it was under construction still.
"Because the building was under construction, it does not have the normal fire protection features so we had some challenges they had to overcome," Boise Fire Battalion Chief Steve Rasulo said.
One problem was that one of the hydrants wasn't yet in service and another was that access to the roof was limited because of the ongoing construction.
Altogether, seven engines, three truck companies and 15 units responded to the scene.
Boise Fire needed to use their ladder trucks in order to get resources to fight the fire.
"We actually used the ladder towers to bring water to the roof and extend our hose lines off of that," Rasulo said. "This is getting pretty close to the limit of the ladder trucks so eight or nine stories depending upon how far out we have to be from the building itself and this is a 100 foot ladder so you can kind of see that's about the max reach that we have."
The left four lanes of Myrtle Street were closed between 9th and 3rd streets, but have since been reopened.
At this time, a cause is undetermined. Investigators are looking into what caused the fire.
No one was injured and no one was in the building when the fire started, according to Boise Fire.