Crews respond to 3-alarm fire at commercial building on Rochester’s west side

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Crews say nobody was hurt after they responded to a three-alarm fire at a commercial building on Rochester’s west side Tuesday night.

It happened at a large building on Lincoln Avenue near Copley Street that is divided up into multiple businesses.

Rochester Fire Department Lt. Jeffrey Simpson said the original call came in for smoke, but crews had a hard time finding where and what building the smoke was coming from before eventually finding it.

He said the second and third alarms were called due to the size of the building and to help back up the firefighters already on scene.

"Due to the size of the building that’s why we had multiple companies here," Simpson said. "What we do then is we determine the best way to get to the fire, and being that it’s such a large building we have to make sure that we have the equipment on different sides of the building to supply those ladder trucks if need be."

Crews were still clearing the smoke as of News10NBC at 11, but by the time the flames were knocked down, the fire was contained to one portion of the building.

Simpson said no one was inside the building when the flames broke out.

No cause has been determined.