Multiple area fire departments were responding Tuesday afternoon to three simultaneous house fires in Rock Island.
Departments responded to the 800 block of 22nd Street, near the intersection with 9th Avenue, where two, two-story wood-framed houses were fully engulfed in flame, and a third house was damaged by fire.
According to 911 scanner traffic, occupants had exited at least one of the homes. It was not immediately known whether anyone was injured or still inside the homes.
Both 9th Avenue and 22nd Street were blocked off near the intersection.
“It’s like a blast furnace,” one responding firefighter could be heard saying over the radio.
Firefighters were having difficulty maintaining water pressure and water supply as they worked to extinguish and gain control of the simultaneous house fires, according to 911 radio traffic. Off-duty personnel and additional fire engines from surrounding departments were being called to help respond to the fire Tuesday afternoon.
One firefighter could be heard saying one of the houses was ready to come down and ordering firefighters who may have been inside the structure to evacuate. Follow-up radio chatter indicated all firefighters were accounted for.
All three houses sit close to one another at the northeast corner of the intersection.
At least two of the houses were built at the turn of the last century in Rock Island’s nationally recognized Broadway historic district and are nearly identical in size at 1,800 square feet. The house at 843 22nd St. was built in 1894 and the neighboring home a year later, according to the Rock Island County Assessor’s office.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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