09/06/05 Fire in a pallet factory in East St Louis

No word yet on what sparked a three-alarm factory fire in East St. Louis Thursday morning. Investigators say this isn't the first time firefighters were called to the First Source Pallet company. Investigators say there have been several fires at the manufacturing plant in the past few months. And they say the owner, Steve wilson, has been cited for fire code violations before.
Flames could be seen shooting from the roof top of the factory at 18th and Broadway around 7 a.m. Thurdsay. On the ground, a maze of wooden pallets made battling this blaze difficult for firefighters. Flames caused part of the two story building to collapse. The fire then spread to a pallet yard outside.

No one was injured in the fire. But investigators say the owner has been fined in the past for fire code violations. East St. Louis Fire Chief, William Fennoy, says "This is a problem that we're working out. We need to get better lanes, better fire lanes here so that we can get access to any part of this structure or any part of this operation that we need to do. We need have this structure enclosed as far as a fence and the whole operation. Those are some of the things that we cited."