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Massive fire burns overnight at storage facility in southwest Charlotte, officials say

CHARLOTTE — As many as 90 firefighters are responding to a large fire that began burning overnight at a storage facility in southwest Charlotte, according to the Charlotte Fire Department.

The fire was reported before midnight at an Extra Space Storage business on South Tryon between Nevada Boulevard and General Drive, CFD said.

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By 6:45 a.m., traffic began moving through both directions of South Tryon after firetrucks and water lines blocked the road for about six hours.

Aerial view of fire in southwest Charlotte early Thursday morning (Courtesy of Mecklenburg EMS)

As of 5 a.m. Thursday morning, the fire was a five-alarm response and crews were still working to get to the heart of the fire, Captain Jackie Gilmore said.

“These firefighters worked tirelessly through the night to make sure the fire didn’t spread to any other storage buildings,” he said.

Gilmore said the first responders to reach the storage facility faced heavy smoke and flames coming from a unit.

No one was hurt in the response, Gilmore said, but MEDIC was on the scene assisting firefighters.

“Firefighters are rehabbing, meaning they’re with MEDIC right now cooling down, checking blood pressure and making sure they’re OK before they continue to go back inside,” Gilmore said.

CFD first said it was responding to a fire at a business after 11:40 p.m. on Wednesday. By 12:20 a.m., the blaze had been upgraded to a three-alarm fire and the response continued to increase through the morning.

Channel 9 crews on the scene flames and thick white smoke coming from the storage units as firefighters swarmed to put out the fire.

“Right now, we’re having to remove items from the storage to get to the scene of the fire,” Gilmore said early Thursday morning. “We still have heavy smoke pushing from the structure.”

Gilmore said it was too early to speculate on a cause of the fire as crews have yet to reach its source.

This is a developing story. Check wsoctv.com for updates.

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