Nearly three dozen people were evacuated briefly from a historic downtown apartment building Saturday evening after a suspected grease fire set off the sprinklers, which saturated the electrical panels. Fire crews had to carry some of the residents down the stairs.

St Joseph Fire Department Batallion Chief Russell Moore said the good news for those tenants is that most of them were allowed to return to their homes.

Chief Moore says there was a fire in one of the apartments on the mezzanine of the Townsend and Wall Apartments at 602 Francis.

The fire set off the building’s sprinkler system, which saturated the affected apartment and the floor of the hallway below. Moore says the electrical panels were saturated, and the situation appeared to be dangerous. But an electrician called in by the electric company said the panels were made from the type of material that can be out in the weather, and he did not feel it was unsafe.

Moore says that was good news for the tenants, because otherwise the Red Cross would have had to find places for about 30 people to stay the night. Some of those residents packed up some belongings and left, but Moore says they can return, with the exception of the resident of the apartment where the fire started.

The cause of the fire remained under investigation, but several residents referred to it as a grease fire.

Chief Moore says maintenance staff in the building, and members of the fire department, were unable to gbet the breakers on the elevators reset.

“We had to physically carry a lot of people down,” Moore said. “That’s one of the issues we have in this apartment complex here.”

“They have people in wheelchairs that can’t do steps, at all, up on the upper floors. We don’t like that. If anything bad really happened here, it would be a very dangerous situation.”

The Townsend and Wall Loft Apartments are part of the historic Townsend Wyatt and Wall Dry Goods building, which was constructed in the 1860s.

Five floors in the building were occupied. Moore says about 30 had to leave their homes briefly. There were no injuries.