by Elizabeth RuizA historic downtown building that once housed a popular downtown night spot has been gutted by a two-alarm blaze, hours before a second two-alarm fire just a block away.
The Frisky-A-Go-Go club was one of the hottest night spots in town in the late 60's and early 70's, but never as hot as it was Wednesday night when a massive fire erupted on the second floor of the two-story building on Broadway near Pecan Street.
The Traveler's Hotel next door was evacuated when the fire erupted around 7 pm and two hours later, flames were still seen shooting out of a window.
San Antonio Fire Battalion Chief Keith Crusius says it was too dangerous for firefighters to enter the building, so they had to use ladder trucks to fight the flames from the exterior of the structure.
"It's just simply too dangerous to go inside because they're going to have the ceiling and the walls start to fall and the floor collapse under them, so it's completely unsafe," Crusius told 550 KTSA News on the scene.
He contacted the owner of the building and gave him the bad news.
"He said that it was vacant. It used to be a hotel and they were thinking of remodeling it into office space," said Crusius.
Meanwhile, the second fire broke out around 3:30 AM--forcign the evacuation of the nearby Hotel Indigo.
"We did evacuate that hotel as a precauion" said Christian Bove witht he San Antonio Fire Department. About 85 people in all were affected.
"Because they are so close--that's one of the challenges. Pretty much all of the same units that were here last night got called out this morning. Our firefighters have been working on very little sleep--but they still did a tremendouns job this morning" Bove said.
"We did evacuate that hotel as a precauion" said Christian Bove witht he San Antonio Fire Department. About 85 people in all were affected.
"Because they are so close--that's one of the challenges. Pretty much all of the same units that were here last night got called out this morning. Our firefighters have been working on very little sleep--but they still did a tremendouns job this morning" Bove said.
