ST. LOUIS – A massive, three-alarm fire at a historic St. Louis church was a battle against both fire and ice for about 80 St. Louis firefighters on Monday.

The extreme cold was nearly as big a concern as the flames.

The first emergency calls came around 11:30 a.m. Right away, there were problems not just dousing the flames but also getting to the scene on St. Louis streets, still icy more than two weeks after a winter storm.

“One of the challenges wasn’t necessarily us navigating, but people being attracted to the smoke and the fire. We had people coming to see what was going on,” Capt. Garon Mosby, St. Louis Fire Department, said. “Their inability to move quickly on the ice hampered our ability to get and place our apparatus where we needed to.”

“They’re doing an awesome job,” nearby resident Tyanna Broadway said of the firefighters. “They knocked on our doors to make sure everyone was ok. We just hate that it’s another vacant building that’s burning in the neighborhood.”

The majestic building took up most of a city block at 19th Street and Newhouse Avenue.

Property records show it had done so for more than a century. The former Friedens German Protestant Church was noted for its beautiful stained-glass windows and sky-scraping bell tower. It was part of the glue of the neighborhood in the early 20th century.

It was last known to be home to the Cephas Christian Church congregation in the 2010s but had been vacant for the last several years.

Firefighters initially checked to see if anyone might be stranded inside but evacuated 11 minutes later. A short time afterward, part of the building collapsed. Smoke was so thick it blocked the sun.

“We’ve got no injuries to report, which is almost miraculous. I haven’t seen anyone fall,” Capt. Mosby said.

A firefighter did fall on the ice minutes later but was not hurt. There were multiple close calls on the icy streets. Firefighters worked in rotation, taking breaks to warm up. Flames briefly spread to four vacant buildings nearby but with minimal damage.

The building had no electrical service, so someone likely started the fire. Investigators were looking for video from nearby surveillance cameras to try to determine who and how.