NEW ORLEANS — A large wharf fire near Patterson Drive and Wiltz Lane lit up the sky along the Mississippi River in Algiers.
Embers, flames and thick smoke filled the air.
Steve Wendling heard the fire trucks in front of his house around 8:30 Monday night and went outside to investigate.
“Looks like they had a pretty good fire they had to deal with out there,” Wendling said. “It was billowing up pretty good. The wind was blowing the fire into them at the levee. It was kind of hard for them to get out to it.”
New Orleans firefighters ran hose lines across the levee in an attempt to reach the fast-growing fire.
The burning wharf was partially blocked by marsh and trees.
Fire investigators were back at the scene Tuesday morning, trying to determine the cause of the two-alarm fire.
Michael Mosley lives not far from the levee.
“I think somebody homeless was out there, probably trying to get warm because it was real cold last night,” Mosley said. “I usually fish out there and I saw some clothing and some other little fire that somebody had.”
It took 55 firefighters about an hour to bring the blaze under control.
All that’s left of this section of wharf is charred wood and metal.
Neighbors admit they are a bit concerned with what’s on the other side of the levee, particularly with the crumbling conditions of some of the wooden wharves along the river.
“They are very old and I guess they’ll go up with any kind of cinders that hit them with that creosote,” Wendling said.
“That wharf caught on fire before about 15 years ago,” Mosley said.
The Port of New Orleans’ fireboat Gen. Kelley fought the flames from the river side of the wharf.
According to the NOFD, docked barges hampered the boat's ability to spray down the fire.
There were no injuries reported.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.