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Fire destroys warehouse redevelopment in south St. Louis

The fire was in the 4200 block of Beck (KWMU photo/Tom Weber)
The fire was in the 4200 block of Beck (KWMU photo/Tom Weber)

By Tom Weber, KWMU

St. Louis – There has been another fire at a building being redeveloped in south St. Louis.

A complex of warehouses burned Thursday afternoon in the Tower Grove South neighborhood, near the corner of Morganford and Beck (4211 Beck).

It broke out during the hottest part of the day, in an area that's mostly homes, with light industry located along nearby railroad tracks.

Neighbors said there have been fires at this property before, and that tuckpointing work had just been done.

Fire Chief Sherman George said the owner was making the building into offices. But George said it is too early to say if this three-alarm fire was purposely set.

"I could see through the bottom section here there was construction going on, it was filled with barren timber," said Scott Tuhro, a south St. Louis resident, who was one of the first to call 911. "It went fast. It didn't take long to burn through."

Since April, three construction sites in south St. Louis have been destroyed by arson. One of those was on South Grand in the Shaw neighborhood; the other two were in the Lafayette Square neighborhood, within an hour of each other.

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