Impatient Driver Damages Hoseline During Massive Atlanta Fire

A driver damaged a hoseline and nearly ran over an Atlanta firefighter during the height of a massive warehouse fire that threatened an aerial late Thursday.

The fire broke out shortly before 11:30 p.m. at a storage warehouse, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Explosions could be heard, and flames spread to an adjacent warehouse and threatened a neighboring apartment complex.

“There was all the explosions happening from inside the building,” Sgt. Cortez Stafford told reporters at the scene. “Unknown what those were, perhaps propane tanks.”

Roughly 75 firefighters responded to the call. While dousing the fire with an aerial, crews needed to evacuate the apparatus when flames became too close beneath it.

“Because that fire moved so fast up under their ladder, and we had fire coming up under them, so they had to evacuate the ladder pretty quickly and move the apparatus because it was about to catch on fire,” Stafford said.

As firefighters were in a "crucial phase" of preventing the fire from spreading to the apartments, a driver trying to reach the complex ran over a hoseline and damaged it, the department stated in an online update. The driver also nearly struck a firefighter at the scene.

“The vehicle caused damage to the hose line and the fire engine was forced to shut down to replace the line,” officials said in a tweet. “Crucial minutes were lost in trying to extinguish the fire and protect the apartments.”

No injuries were reported from the fire. Crews continued to douse the scene early Friday and search for hotspots.