Big Warehouse Fire on West Commerce St. (San Antonio, Taylor: house, school)

[Bowie]

There's a 3-alarm fire happening now at a paper warehouse on West Commerce. 38 fire units responding, with evacuations and water pressure concerns.

Follow the action from a live stream on KSAT.com.

[TXtrkgrl]

I saw the smoke from my work!! It must be horrendous

[Paka]

I work in WHMC and when I looked out the window and saw the thick black smoke my initial fear was a plane had crashed on approach to the runway at Kelly Field.

Sure hope the folks in that area head the evacuation warnings, they said they had no idea what was in there, but potential for toxic/hazardous materials issues.

[Bowie]

Here's a photo of the fire posted by a nearby blogger.

behind the dugout » Blog Archive » San Antonio is on fire…

Bill Taylor just showed on KENS how the plume of smoke is showing up on the weather radar. The fire is several miles west of downtown and the smoke is headed nearly due south.

[AnthonySA]

Yes, if you live on the southside of SA, you may want to limit your outdoor activity if you have sensitive lungs tonight until the particles that the smoke carries are finally diluted.

What a sad situation. I'm glad that, through all of this, there have been no injuries to people.

[yosoyway]

I drove by there a before Christmas while looking for masa to make tamales. When I saw this place, my first thought was why is this here. Second thought was that it was a potential huge fire just waiting to happen.

Told my wife, remember what I told you when we saw it.

[buffy888]

Originally Posted by Paka

I work in WHMC and when I looked out the window and saw the thick black smoke my initial fear was a plane had crashed on approach to the runway at Kelly Field.

Sure hope the folks in that area head the evacuation warnings, they said they had no idea what was in there, but potential for toxic/hazardous materials issues.

Our school was evacuated around 4 PM as we are just a few blocks from the fire. So many streets were closed off - street directly in front of the school is a one way - took about half an hour to get to a street where we could turn to actually get anywhere.

Just had to laugh at the hope that people heeded the evacuation warnings, since as we were all trying to leave the area there were people on almost every street corner sitting in lawn chairs and watching the smoke while eating a snack... Or walking through street barricades so they could get closer.

[traveler guy]

Yeah I saw the smoke from my house and I have a friend that lives right around that area. Does anyone know how it started.

[rd2007]

The owner of the place sure isn't impressive.. He had his 19 year old daughter doing the TV interviews and giving out the statements from the family. Not very manly at all if you ask me..

[sapphire]

Originally Posted by rd2007

The owner of the place sure isn't impressive.. He had his 19 year old daughter doing the TV interviews and giving out the statements from the family. Not very manly at all if you ask me..

Maybe he doesn't speak English? I don't know, I didn't see it, but maybe he had a reason for having her speak for him. Just a thought.