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ST. LOUIS — City officials are looking to create a “brick bank� to help people rebuild historic homes damaged or destroyed by the tornado.

Staffers across departments are talking about places they could use to take in the city’s famous red brick, keep them safe and eventually parcel them back out to help build anew in the wake of the storm.

“We are interested in supporting a brick bank and are actively looking into it,� Mayor Cara Spencer said in a statement.

It’s just one of the things the city is doing after the May 16 tornado carved a path of destruction across the city’s north side, killing five and damaging thousands of structures. But a brick bank could have an outsized impact: The red clay bricks, harvested from the clay under city homes and streets, built this city into what was once one of the nation’s preeminent metropolises.

And it remains prized by builders and a source of civic pride.

Its heavy use here traces to 1849, when a fire razed a large part of the city. New building codes required sturdier buildings. And the red clay beds here provided the materials. Eventually, an entire industry sprang up to meet the demands of a growing city.

Brick has also helped tell the story of the city’s decline: As areas have emptied out over the past 70 years, entrepreneurs and thieves have harvested the bricks from abandoned buildings to be resold, especially in booming Southern cities.

And now, in the wake of the tornado, there have been fears that the trend would accelerate anew.

The brick bank would try to solve some of that.

“Our bricks are one of our best assets as a city,� said Aldermanic President Megan Green. “We need to keep them here.�

At least some of the hardened clay is likely lost: Materials scrambled during the storm are assumed to be contaminated with asbestos.

But brick still intact in a building that nevertheless needs to come down could be professionally dismantled and deposited in the bank.

In an ideal situation, owners having their homes demolished could have their bricks stacked on a pallet, surrounded with plastic wrap and stored in a secure warehouse in north ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ until they’re ready to rebuild. If they decided against rebuilding, they could donate the bricks for public use.

Some of the nearly 200 buildings that are owned by the city’s land bank and set to be demolished would add to the pool.

Exact plans are still in development. Storage space, security and equipment to harvest and clean brick will all cost money, and officials are still sorting through their options.

There could be limitations to the bricks’ utility, too. Some may not be suitable for use in load-bearing walls again, officials said.

But the same brick could also be used for a facade front to match historic district requirements or be crushed into gravel for other uses.