CSFD fights commercial building fire

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo (KRDO) -- Colorado Springs firefighters battled a three-alarm fire Friday night.

Flames could be seen engulfing a U-Haul storage facility located at 2540 South Academy near Astrozon Boulevard, part of a strip mall encompassing about 12-15 businesses and car repair shops.

Firefighters could be seen using chainsaws to cut away garage doors to the storage area, in order to put out the flames.

The first calls for service were made just after 8:00pm, but the scene quickly evolved into a three-alarm blaze requiring approximately 55 fire personnel, according to C.S.F.D. Captain Mike Smaldino.

In all, it took about one hour to extinguish the bulk of the flames, but fire crews remained on scene for several hours afterwards searching for hot-spots, and ensuring that there would be no spread to adjacent businesses.

At the time of this writing, it is unclear how many businesses were damaged, or which one was the origin of the fire.

There were no reported injuries to firefighters or the public.