Posted
on Tue Jun 16, 2009
Last updated
Jun 17, 2009
After fighting a massive fire for almost 11 hours, crews are still trying to figure out what caused the blaze that destroyed a condo at Lake of the Ozarks.
It happened around 6:30 Tuesday morning at the Summer Place Condominiums in Sunrise Beach near the Hurricane Deck Bridge.
Nobody was in the condo at the time so there were no injuries.
Firefighters got the call when smoke started coming from the roof, and while they were on the way they saw flames shooting into the air all the way from the Hurricane Deck Bridge, but witnesses said that's nothing compared to what it was like up close.
Philip Lakamp lives in the building next door just a few feet away. He said when he first woke up he saw a bright red glow through his window and he thought it was the sun. He quickly learned that wasn't the case.
Lakamp said, "I ran to the door, opened it, and this roof was engulfed in flames and I felt the heat coming in. I yelled at my wife we gotta get dressed and we gotta get out of here right now."
The top floor of the four story condo is totally gone. Most of the walls are still standing but fire fighters say inside it was much worse. Dustin Hancock with the Sunrise Beach Fire Protection District said, "The floors started to give way. We switched to an aerial attack and floors just started collapsing in on us."
Firefighters also said they ran into problems with having enough good water sources, a problem they've been battling for a while; on top that, the position of the building didn't help either.
Hancock said, "It's a real challenge since you can't drive on the front side of the building. The ladder can only stretch so far."
We asked the firefighters what they're doing to fix this problem and they told us they're trying to work with developers to put in water towers and fire hydrants before big developments like this one ever go in.
As for the cause, witness said the fire started during a bad storm and some say they heard a loud boom they think was a lightning strike. Firefighters say it's a good possibility that's what caused it, but no official determination has been made yet.
The building is considered a total loss, but not dollar amount has been estimated yet.
