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Wharf fire started just upriver of Krewe of Iris fireworks; investigation ongoing: report

Officials with the New Orleans Fire Department haven't said if the fireworks may have led to the fire, according to the paper's report.

NEW ORLEANS — The inferno that consumed what was left of the Old Market Street Wharf late Saturday night began near a fireworks display at the Krewe of Iris ball, but what sparked the fire remains under investigation, according to a report from The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate.

Officials with the New Orleans Fire Department haven't said if the fireworks may have led to the fire, according to the paper's report.

AFX Pro applied for and got a permit to stage a short fireworks display at Mardi Gras World along the Mississippi during Iris' annual Goddess Gala, the report said.

The fireworks began around 10:30 p.m., and inspectors with the New Orleans Fire Department monitored the show, the report said.

At some point in the half-hour after the fireworks, wooden pilings hundred of feet away caught fire.

16 NOFD units with 41 fire personnel fought the flames to get the fire under control. Sunday afternoon, crews on the river were still spraying water onto the lingering smoke.

No injuries were reported.

NOFD said Sunday afternoon that they are still investigating what caused the fire. Multiple witnesses saw a fireworks display in the same area before they noticed any flames, but NOFD has not yet released a possible cause. 

"They had fireworks about 30 minutes prior to that," Romano said.

The old wood pilings that caught fire were treated with creosote, a wood preservative that was used as early as the mid-1800s., according to the EPA.

The treatment made the wood more resistant to catching fire, but it also made it more difficult to extinguish.

As firefighters began putting out portions of the fire, some firefighter crews were sent home.

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