3 dead, thousands evacuated in Dallas high-rise fire

USPA News - Three construction workers were killed Thursday and three others sustained injuries when a fire erupted in the basement of a high-rise office building in downtown Dallas, prompting the evacuation of nearly 3,000 employees, Texas fire officials said. The incident began at approximately 10:18 a.m. local time when firefighters responded to a reported car fire at the 50-story Thanksgiving Tower after smoke was seen coming from the building`s parking garage entrance.

When firefighters made their way to the source of the smoke, however, they found that the fire was located in an equipment room on a lower parking garage level. "There were approximately 2,800 people in the building when the fire began, and they were our primary concern as the incident evolved," Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman Jason Evans said. "We received information indicating the possibility of workers having been in the area where the fire was located, but several factors, including visibility and heat, kept firefighters from immediately being able to enter." Approximately 130 firefighters responded to battle the blaze and to assist in the evacuation. "After ventilating the area, the bodies of three workers were found inside. The bodies of the three individuals were extricated from their resting point, then transferred to the care of the Medical Examiner`s Office for a determination on the causes of their deaths," Evans explained. Several other people who were elsewhere inside the building were evaluated by paramedics outside of the high-rise building, but only three of them were taken to area hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries. The cause of Thursday`s deadly fire was not immediately known.