Everyone is safe, but fire crews had to retreat from the building as it started to collapse so no firefighters would get hurt.
McConnell told how they were able to go in and rescue an elderly woman, the only person in the house. He says it then got too dangerous to stay inside as parts of the home began to collapse.
"They're never happy when we tell them they have to get out," the chief explained. "It's for their own safety."
McConnell says he couldn't risk losing any firefighters.
"When a fire burns for that period of time, is when you start to have structural members failing, and that was what was happening."
He called it a "catastrophic loss."
Family members say several pets were also rescued.
The fire is in the 2500 block of St. Charles Avenue and broke out just before 8:00am this morning.
The house was home was built in 1888 and home to several generations of Carnival royalty. Click here to read more.
Here is the news release the NOFD sent out:
New Orleans, LA- On Wednesday, February 20, 2019 at 7:44 a.m. a 911 call reporting “flames visible” in a single family dwelling in the 2500 block of St. Charles Ave. Dispatched immediately, the first New Orleans Fire Department (NOFD) company arrived on the scene at 7:48 a.m. finding a three-story Victorian-style mansion at 2525 St. Charles Ave with flames and heavy smoke coming from the first floor and basement area from the home. After assisting an elderly female from the dwelling and being assured by the home’s residents that all occupants had escaped safely, firefighters began an aggressive interior attack of the first floor and basement. A second-alarm was requested shortly after arrival, as firefighters worked to find the fire’s area of origin. Incident Command (IC) noticed heavy yellow smoke coming from the dwelling’s basement, indicating the possibility of chlorine being involved. The homeowner informed NOFD personnel that chlorine and other pool products were stored in the basement, confirming the IC’s suspicions. This prompted the evacuation of all Fire Operations (Fire Ops) personnel from the basement and first floor as other firefighters attempted to get ahead of the fire on the second and third floors.
Third, fourth and fifth alarms were requested at 8:16 a.m., 8:42 a.m. and 9:04 a.m. respectively as the fire entered the walls of the home and escalated into the attic. An exposed property to the immediate right of the fire building, a four-story apartment building, was evacuated as the fire intensified eventually burning through the roof of the home and into surrounding tree canopies. By this time Fire Ops personnel had enacted defensive fire suppression tactics, inundating the fire with large volumes of water from all sides. A sixth alarm was eventually requested as the roof became fully involved and flames burned through the roof and the exterior walls began to collapse. One NOFD member was assisted from the fire building after he became disoriented. He was evaluated on the scene by New Orleans Emergency Medical Services (NOEMS) personnel before returning to his company. One other firefighter stepped through the floor boards but was able to evacuate himself safely from the building, the member was uninjured.