(La Porte, IN) - Many people were wondering what was happening at the old La Porte Hospital Tuesday morning, as smoke billowed from one of the top floors.

 

It’s not every day you see a high-rise fire in La Porte.

 

After all the excitement, Battalion Chief Chase Robowski provided HTNN with details. He said a demolition worker, using a torch to cut pipe, generated sparks that caught the contents of a room on fire. The fire was not extensive, he said, but its location made it tricky to extinguish.

 

"They had removed some of the sprinkler systems in that building," said Robowski, "so we had to use the tower to run line up the ladder and through a window on the seventh floor and down the hall to get water to the fire." Robowski said the demolition supervisor on site was very helpful in directing firefighters to the blaze.

 

Robowski said the fire was limited to leftover furniture, cabinets, and debris left in the hospital, which workers are still in the process of removing. 

 

Robokowski said three fire engines were also dispatched to the scene for extra help and out of an abundance of caution. "We needed the manpower," he said, "because you never know, with a building that size, what's going on. So we wanted to surround it and make sure we had a fire truck at each side in case something was not what it appeared to be." 

 

Fire crews were on on-scene for about three hours, but the fire itself was put out quickly. There were no injuries.