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Downtown commuters watch JFRD battle fire at abandoned funeral home

JFRD says they could see flames coming out of the second story of the building when they arrived.

JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — RELATED: Watch Live: Abandoned funeral home demolished Wednesday after weekend fire

Flames and black plumes of smoke could be seen shooting out of a downtown building on Saturday night.

Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department says they saw flames coming out of the second story at an abandoned funeral home.

Firefighters spent hours on Saturday night trying to tamper down the heavy-duty flames and putting out hotspots in the building.

Two 911 calls came in around 5:30 p.m. on Saturday night. Firefighters say they could not enter the building because it was too dangerous, so they immediately went into a defensive position.

Downtown commuters like Jessica Jones say they could see the smoke coming from the Matthews Bridge.

“I never saw flames that big and I knew that wasn’t good," Jones said.

‘My first thought was the 7-Eleven [next door], I thought oh my gosh is the gas station is in danger?” Jones asked.

The integrity of the funeral home and the danger to nearby buildings were a concern for firefighters.

About 45 trucks and more than 110 firefighters arrived on scene to what they say rose to a three-alarm fire.

Steve Riska, Chief of Operations for the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department says it was a dangerous situation after the building's roof collapsed.

“Once they had the floor collapse there was a danger of wall collapse, the building actually coming down, and on the back corner of the 7-Eleven was a propane tank. So we had our hazmat folks in their cooling that tank protecting that exposure,” Riska said.

Riska says firefighters may work through the night to put out remaining hotspots.

The structural integrity of the building is weak, he says.

“We’ve got folks from code enforcement coming out to look at the building and the building will have to come down in the near future,” Riska added.

Riska says this was a large response to prevent what could've been a larger disaster.

People like Jones are grateful that no one was hurt, and she says she's never witnessed a fire like this.

“The closer you got down to the bottom of the bridge you could really start smelling whatever was burning, it was getting really cloudy,” Jones said.

“We couldn’t get any closer so I had to wonder what’s on fire but I knew it had to be big because those flames were huge,” Jones added.

Portions of Union Street, State Street, Main Street and Laura Street were shut down for several hours.

The cause of the fire is unknown and a state Fire Marshal is investigating.

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