'The Roof Has Collapsed:' OKC Fire Battles 3-Alarm Motel Fire

Oklahoma City Fire crews have been working since early Sunday morning to put out a massive fire at an abandoned motel called Rodeway Inn near Interstate 35 and Southeast 66th Street.

The building collapsed and smoke could be seen pouring into the sky from miles away.

“With the heavy south winds the fire basically had a head start,” OKC Fire Chief Derak Stewart said.

Fire crews were called to the scene just after 7 a.m.

Stewart says they don’t know what caused the fire to start.

“A large structure it's hard to get people around it with this kind of wind it's just a tough situation from the start,” Stewart said.

He added that this is not the first time they've been to the old Rodeway Inn this summer.

Several smaller fires made the structure unstable leading up to Sunday's 3-alarm blaze.

“That roof has collapsed so now we basically have hidden fire if you will trapped underneath that metal roof. That's going to tough to get to with the collapse hazard and some of the safety concerns so we're going to be out here for quite some time trying to get water under that metal roof,” Stewart said.

High winds and temperatures Sunday morning added to the issue and made it hard for firefighters to keep the building standing at all.

“We've had multiple collapses around the structure,” Stewart said.

He said his crews main concern was keeping the fire from spreading.

“Which we were successful in that. We've contained it to this address only,” he said.

Witnesses at a nearby business say there was a small community of unhoused people squatting at the abandoned motel when the fire broke out.

“We're not getting reports of anyone missing or anyone maybe still inside so at this point it's kind of hard to confirm that information,” Stewart said.

The good news is, firefighters said there are no injuries, no fatalities and no firefighter injuries to report at this time.

Fire crews had the northbound off-ramp at I-35 and SE 66th Street shut down for most of Sunday as they battled the fire.