Photo by Joselyn King Firefighters with the Wheeling Fire Department respond to a multi-structure blaze affecting five homes at 1066- 1074 McColloch St. Saturday afternoon.

WHEELING – Four homes were destroyed, and a fifth sustained excessive smoke damage during a multi-structure fire starting late Saturday morning and rolling into the afternoon.

Philip Stahl, public information officer for the Wheeling Fire Department, said the first call on the fire came at about 11 a.m. Saturday and reported heavy smoke coming from a house at 1068 McColloch St.

A home at 1066 McColloch St., as well as those at 1070, 1072 and and 1074 also were in danger, so the emergency was elevated to a second-alarm fire, calling out additional off-duty firefighters, he explained.

The first four structures sustained major damage, while the home at 1074 McColloch was said to have smoke damage, according to Stahl.

Fire Chief Jim Blazier said no one was injured in the fire.

“The structures were occupied, but no one was home,” Blazier said.

At least two firefighters were affected with exhaustion during the blaze and were given IV fluids, he added.

Blazier said the cause of the fire was not yet known, and would be investigated by the fire department’s Bureau of Fire Investigations.

Complicating firefighting efforts on Saturday were downed live power lines in front of the structures.

“They couldn’t get from one way to another,” Blazier explained.

Workers with American Electric Power were called to the scene, and accessibility issues forced them to turn off power to the whole neighborhood so firefighters could proceed safely.

Blazier noted the homes affected were more damaged in the rear.

Firefighters were still on the scene at 1:30 p.m., and he expected they would remain there “for at least the next couple of hours” until it was extinguished.