Firefighters battle blaze at historic Warwick Theatre in Kansas City’s Midtown
Firefighters battled a multi-alarm blaze at The Warwick Theatre in Kansas City’s Midtown early Wednesday that significantly damaged the historic venue, a spokesman for the Kansas City Fire Department said.
The fire department received a call shortly before 5 a.m. that there was a possible fire at the theater at 3927 Main Street, said Battalion Chief Michael Hopkins.
The first fire crews on the scene reported smoke and fire coming from the second floor at the rear of the theater. Initially firefighters entered the building to attack the fire.
After a few minutes of not being able to find the exact location of the fire and because of the style of roof, fire command decided to evacuate firefighters from the building to regroup and fight the fire defensively, Hopkins said.
After firefighters were able to knock back the fire, stopping its spread, they went back inside.
Firefighters were able to bring the fire under control, containing it to the one building. Minimal damage was done to adjoining structures, mostly smoke and maybe some water damage, Hopkins said.
The fire was extinguished and most of the responding firefighters had cleared the scene by 7 a.m., he said.
“There was pretty significant damage in the theater building itself,” said Hopkins, including possible reports of holes in the floor. “There was pretty decent fire up in the ceiling and roof area.”
The older theater building has bowstring trusses which give it a distinctive curved roof, but also poses a challenge when battling fires, Hopkins said.
“That type of roof structure under fire conditions is very dangerous,” he said. “Minimal fire exposure can lead to collapse fairly quickly in that type of roof structure.”
That was firefighters main concern when they initially went inside on their initial attack of the fire and discovered it was a bowstring construction, Hopkins said.
Fire command had them back out to regroup. After firefighters were able to knock back the fire to slow its spread while fighting it defensively, they went back inside.
“Locating the fire in a building of that type — a two-story structure with that type of roof and attic space — sometimes can conceal the fire,” Hopkins said. “Even though you can see it from the outside, when you get inside sometimes it can be kind of hard to pinpoint and locate.”
The firefighters and incident commander did a great job of keeping everyone safe, Hopkins said. No injuries were reported. The building was believed to have been empty at the time of the fire.
Fire investigators were just beginning their investigation, so it was too early to tell where and how the fire started, Hopkins said.
The Warwick, one of the many theaters designed by the Boller Brothers architectural firm, originally opened in 1912, according to the theater’s website. The Colonial Revival style-theater originally seated more than 1,000 on two floors.
One of the more notable aspects of the theater was is rich red velvet draperies around the stage and matching seating, according to the website.
When the theater closed in 1953, much of the decor was lost. The racked seating was removed and the floor was leveled. The former arts icon at one time was home to a retail furniture store, according to a 2015 story in The Star.
In 2015, the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre closed on the purchase of the historic theater and began staging performances there.
The MET had an upcoming show, August Wilson’s classic Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, scheduled to be performed in early March.
This story was originally published February 7, 2024 at 7:01 AM.
