Two-alarm fire heavily damages pawnshop in northeast Kansas City

Thick smoke billowed skyward as a two-alarm fire swept through a pawnshop in northeast Kansas City on Wednesday.

The blaze was reported about 5:50 a.m. at National Pawn, 6223 E. Truman Road.

The first firefighters on the scene found a significant amount of smoke but little fire when they went through the building near Truman Road and Belmont Avenue, just west of Interstate 435, said Battalion Chief James Garrett, a spokesman for the Kansas City Fire Department.

“A lot of the fire was trapped up in what we call a cockloft, which is a void space between ceiling and the roof, which is about five or six feet,” Garrett said. “A bulk of the fire got up in there and conditions got pretty bad.”

Firefighters had to pull out of the building and fight the fire defensively for a time. The first crews called for a second alarm within minutes of arriving.

Because of the challenge to get into the void or attic space, the fire burned through the roof of the business.

Wind blew the heavy black smoke south over the neighborhood. The thick smoke could be seen from Interstate 70.

Authorities closed Truman Road in both directions while firefighters fought the blaze.

This story was originally published November 19, 2014 at 6:56 AM with the headline "Two-alarm fire heavily damages pawnshop in northeast Kansas City."