HOUSTON -- A final search of a northeast Houston high-rise office building that was the scene of a four-alarm fire that claimed three lives began Thursday, KPRC Local 2 reported.

Safety concerns forced firefighters to delay the search until the afternoon after structural engineers deemed it was safe to enter.

The fire started at the building at 9343 North Loop East at Gellhorn at about 5:15 p.m. Wednesday and burned for hours.

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Investigators were kept outside the burned-out building until an all-clear was given. The intense heat was believed to have warped the building's steel beams, making it structurally unsound.

"There are some issues with the building. A back corner is moving a little bit. The other corner is moving," District Chief Tommy Dowdy said.

Firefighters searched all floors on the north side and in the center, and found no additional victims.

Officials said they will ask for help from the ATF to figure out the cause of the massive blaze.

A chain-link fence was put up around the perimeter to keep occupants out.

Firefighters used a ladder to rescue several people from the inferno on Wednesday.

Flames shot out of the top floors of the six-story building and the roof while thick black smoke filled the sky and forced traffic on the North Loop to come to a standstill.

The inferno raged through the building for hours.

Part of the building collapsed just after 10 p.m. Firefighters were at the building all night to put out any hot spots that popped up and secure the scene.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. Officials said it started in a plastic surgeon's office on the fifth floor.

The building was built in 1980 and has more than 62,000 square feet of office space.

Three Victims Remembered By Loved Ones, Friends

Crews found three bodies on the fifth floor during their initial search. The Harris County Medical Examiner's office officials said Shana Ellis, 38, Jeanette Hargrove, 52, and Marvin Wells, 46, perished in the fire.

One of the fire victims was a budding victims' rights activist planning to testify Thursday against the man charged with sexually assaulting her daughter several years ago.

Hargrove, of Friendswood, was killed when the blaze raged through her fifth-floor office of the Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services. Hargrove had become known to some in Houston as a knowledgeable victim's rights advocate, a role she assumed after her daughter's attack.

Andy Kahan, the crime victims director for Houston Mayor Bill White, said he spoke with Hargrove only hours before her death and he planned to accompany Hargrove to court on Thursday.

"Jeanette was a very classy lady and was adamant about ensuring that justice be carried out for her daughter," Kahan said. "Instead of yelling and screaming about the injustice of the world, she took action. I was personally just stunned this morning when I found out. It's just ironic. I felt once her case was over, she would join the ranks as a victim's advocate."

Hargrove leaves behind a husband and 16-year-old daughter.

Ellis worked with Hargrove. She was a single mother of two. She worked in the building helping high school students with disabilities find jobs.

Ellis' brother is a Fort Bend County deputy who spoke with her minutes before the fire. He knew something was wrong when she failed to pick up her 8-year-old daughter and nephew from school to take them to bible study.

"That was my sister. She was all about having something to do with those kids -- something positive for them to get into and working with the church. She was a light for people that ran out of hope," brother Jerome Ellis said.

Wells was a husband and father of three who just opened an office on the sixth floor for a trucking company.

"My husband was a good man. He loved me as well as his children and he loved others. He helped the homeless. He ministered to a lot of individuals," wife Lynell Wells said.

Wells was also a pastor of a neighborhood church.

Firefighters, Civilians Injured

Firefighters and people inside the building when the fire broke out suffered injuries.

Five firefighters and three civilians were rushed to hospitals for treatment.

Captains Joel Eric Abdt and Stephen Langford remained hospitalized in fair condition at Memorial Hermann Hospital on Thursday. One fell off a ladder and the other was badly bruised.

Building occupant Yogesh Bali, 48, was listed in critical condition at Memorial Hermann Hospital with smoke inhalation and throat injuries. Hospital officials said Bali had been in a fifth-floor office before firefighters rescued him.

Three firefighters and two civilians were treated and released.

Many Employees Did Not Know About Fire

Many employees inside the building said they did not know what was happening because they did not hear any alarms.

"Someone ran into the building and told us it was on fire," one employee said. "They could see fire coming from the side of the building."

Gloria Castillo was outside the building when she ran in to alert everyone inside.

"I saw flames inside the building," Castillo said. "I went into the building screaming 'fire.' Nobody knew the building was on fire."

People trapped inside were able to call for help because the phone lines were working.

"We had several phone calls from people to dispatch telling us they were on different floors in their offices, trapped," Dowdy said.

Dawn Herring worked in an office on the fourth floor of the building. She said she realized something was wrong when she smelled smoke and heard people screaming.

"We were panicking. If it wasn't for the window, we could hardly breathe in there," witness Bill Daud said.

"There were no sprinkler alarms," Herring said. "Once we went out in the hallway, there may have been a very light fire alarm, a small buzz. We didn't hear anything in the office."

The Houston Fire Department's chief inspector said the building was grandfathered in when stronger building codes went into effect and that things may have been different if a better smoke and sprinkler system had been in place.

"This building would be a much different situation than a building that would be built today," Perry Schindewolf said. "It just had partial sprinklers. When this building was built, there was no fire alarm system required to be put in it. Evidently, they put in some partial fire alarm system, meaning some manual pull stations."

The building was inspected 30 days ago.

"This inspection reviewed fire alarms, strobe lights and the call system to the fire pumps. Further, the building's sprinkler system has been inspected on an annual basis since North Loop purchased the building in 2003," said John Renz, an attorney for Boxer Property Management.

Houston Mayor Bill White said he believes there needs to be a review of the code requirements for mid-rise buildings.

Links:

The 100 Club
Houston Fire Department High Rise Triad
Houston Fire Department Business Information Alarms