One firefighter was injured and the residents of eight apartments were forced out of their homes until repairs can be made.

The fire at 1103 Central Ave. was reported at 9:55 a.m.

When firefighters arrived, they found heavy fire in the rear of the vacant building, with a lot of smoke obscuring the front of the structure and blowing across Central Avenue. Smoke was also coming out of apartment windows on the second and third floors of 1101 Central Ave., which is immediately to the west.

Fire Chief Steve Hergenreter said a strong wind from the south was pushing the fire through the structure at 1103 Central Ave.

-Submitted photo
Firefighters spray water into the back of 1103 Central Ave. Thursday morning as they fight a blaze in the structure. The image was capture by Libby Nostrum of Fort Dodge.

Firefighters took two hoselines into that building. They soon faced fire conditions that Hergenreter described as ”very violent.”

”The crews noticed a very fast increase in heat,” he said.

That rapid increase in heat was the prelude to a smoke explosion that sent flames blasting out of the front of the building and across the sidewalk on Central Avenue.

A smoke explosion occurs when smoke and other gases produced in a fire ignite violently. They are rare.

”I’ve never seen one happen with my own eyes,” Hergenreter said.

-Messenger photo by Elijah Decious
Fort Dodge Fire Lt. Mitch Halverson pulls up the edge of the roof to check for smoldering hot spots as firefighters finish extinguishing the fire at 1103 Central Ave.

The smoke explosion, he said, happened in the attic space of the building.

Firefighters immediately left the building after the smoke explosion. They switched to hosing down the fire from the outside. A large diameter nozzle at the tip of the Fire Department’s aerial ladder was used to pour water on it from above.

”They were putting a lot of water on the fire, but there was a lot of fire,” Hergenreter said.

Meanwhile, another crew took a hoseline into 1101 Central Ave. There, they found fire extending into the building through a window in the hallway and windows in two apartments on the second floor. Flames were also coming into the building through a window in the third floor hallway. Firefighters made sure all the occupants of the apartments were outside, and put out the fire that was spreading into the building. Hergenreter said their aggressive work prevented that large building from being destroyed.

The injured firefighter suffered a laceration on the forehead and was treated and released at UnityPoint Health — Trinity Regional Medical Center.

-Messenger photo by Elijah Decious
The blazing fire next to Harty’s Caddy Shack Cafe, reported Thursday at approximately 9:55 a.m., ravaged what was left of the abandoned building.

Hergenreter said the building at 1103 Central Ave. is a complete loss. It is a two-story building that was constructed in 1910. Online records of the Webster County Assessor’s office list the owner as William H. Habhab, of Fort Dodge.

The building at 1101 Central Ave. has Harty’s Caddy Shack Cafe on the first floor and apartments on the second and third floors. Eight of the apartments were occupied.

Jeff Hart, the owner of Harty’s Caddy Shack Cafe, was escorted into his business by a firefighter after the blaze was out. He said there was a lot of water in the restaurant, along with smoke damage.

The building at 1101 Central Ave. was built in in 1916. Part of the building on the South 11th Street side once served as a passenger terminal for the Fort Dodge, Des Moines and Southern Railroad. Online records of the Webster County Assessor’s Office list the current owner as Ricky J. Thompson, of Fort Dodge.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Anyone who has any information about it is asked to call Webster County Crime Stoppers at 515-573-1410.

-Messenger photo by Elijah Decious
The Fort Dodge Fire Department responded to calls of a fire in the 1100 block of Central Ave Thursday morning, where smoke started to billow out of the abandoned building next to Harty’s Caddy Shack Cafe.

Central Avenue between 10th and 12th streets was closed to traffic during the fire. Fort Dodge police and firefighters responded and were on scene until about 1 p.m.

-Submitted photo
Fort Dodge firefighters enter the front door of a boarded-up building at 1103 Central Ave. that was severely damaged by fire Thursday morning.