SPRINGFIELD,Mo.–A massive fire at a commercial building in Springfield briefly leaves some 500 people in the dark.

City utilities shut down power to the area near the fire on Mount Vernon Street where it was restored just minutes after.

Battalion Chief Kevin Smart tells KOLR 10 News that at this time they don’t believe that there are any fatalities involved in this fire and he also tells us that this isn’t the first time that crews have responded to the area.

The Springfield and Battlefield Fire Departments responded Sunday afternoon to a fire in a vacant building at 1730 West Mount Vernon that used to serve as agricultural supply facility years ago.

The metal on the building got so hot that it twisted forcing crews to battle the blaze from the outside.

Firefighters are waiting until the metal can safely be removed before checking inside for any possible bodies.

The vacant building has a history of homeless people staying there and Battalion Chief Smart says that his team has responded to a fire there in the past so he believes that the fire was started by homeless people, but the exact cause is still being investigated.

“Anytime you have a structure that catches fire without utilities it makes you wonder, but again our fire marshal is here, he’ll conduct the investigation, but until we can render this structure safe, he will have to look from the outside and try and look in because it’s just too dangerous to put somebody inside,” says Smart. 

The estimate on the amount of damage is unknown at this time.