Smoke at downtown building brings large fire department response

A fire at a vacant high-rise building on Sunday afternoon sent smoke billowing through parts of downtown Wichita.

The Wichita Fire Department received a report of smoke coming from the former Commerce Bank building at 150 N. Main shortly before 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Parts of First and Main were closed as firefighters battled the blaze, which initially sent heavy smoke into the air.

At about 5:15 p.m., Brad Boyd, a battalion chief with the department, said no injuries had been reported. An ambulance was at the scene about an hour after the call, though it appeared to be for precautionary reasons.

“Crews found heavy smoke coming out the front door,” Boyd said. “They found fire on the first floor and in between the first and second floor. Crews were able to put those fires out.”

The building is on the southeast corner of First and Main, directly west of the Market Centre building and across the street from Cargill’s downtown headquarters.

Boyd said fire investigators were working to determine the cause of the blaze. At least two dozen fire department vehicles responded.

The 150 N. Main building is the former home of Commerce Bank and was also home to the Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas until it left for a new Wichita location in late 2013.

The building was also once owned by David Lundberg and Michael Elzufon of a company called Real Development.

Known around Wichita as the “Minnesota Guys,” the developers arrived in Wichita in 2004 and bought at least 11 aging downtown office buildings before their plans eventually dissolved into a messy tangle of building foreclosures, lawsuits, unpaid contractors and investor bankruptcies.

This story was originally published July 2, 2017 at 4:30 PM with the headline "Smoke at downtown building brings large fire department response."