The fire happened at the historic Crowell-Collier building and it forced the closure of several streets for hours. Firefighters dealt with the fire in the intense heat.

The building was once home to a massive printing plant, but it has sat empty for decades. The fire chief said he believes crews working with cutting torches to removed steel pipes on the outside of the building sparked the fire.

Nick Heimlick said, "Right now we presume, but we are not certain that some portion of the hot work was able to re-enter the building under the breezy conditions and connect with some fuel source inside the building, which led to the ultimate fire."

It was a hot afternoon for firefighters who were decked out in full gear. They poured water on the building for several hours to put the flames out. They said old ceiling tiles that were stacked up inside the building caught fire.

The man who owns the building is Harry Denune. He is under a court order to clean up the building, and said that there is a lot of work to do.

"I hope to get in there as quick as possible to pump the water out of the basement. It's probably like a swimming pool and get all that debris and junk out of there," Denune said.

The building has been a problem for the city for years. In 2009, bricks fell from one of the upper floors, and there was a major fire in 1999.

In Tuesday's fire, no one was injured.