Article published April 29, 2006
2-alarm blaze hits apartments
Dozens homeless; 2 firefighters hurt
Flames penetrate the roof and walls of the third floor at the Brookside Park Apartments off Airport Highway yesterday.
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THE BLADE/AMY E. VOIGT
)
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By KARAMAGI RUJUMBA
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Dozens of people were left homeless and two firefighters were hurt battling a two-alarm fire yesterday that heavily damaged a 36-unit apartment building in South Toledo.
None of the residents of the three-story building at the Brookside Park Apartments complex, 1132 Brookview Drive, was hurt in the fire, which blanketed the area off Airport Highway between Reynolds and Byrne roads with thick clouds of smoke.
"I had just gotten up and was on my patio, when I saw a fire on a balcony on the third floor. I ran up there and tried to put it out, but it had already spread into the wall," said Ricardo Lucas, 23, a production engineer at the First Solar LLC manufacturing plant in Perrysburg Township.
"I don't know what started it, but it was a little fire on the balcony and there were little pieces of paper and stuff and we put that out, but then it had already spread too far," Mr. Lucas added, noting that he did not even know the name of the person in the apartment whom he helped with the fire on the balcony.
Firefighters haul hose into the burning apartment building on Brookview Drive.
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"I just moved in here with my girlfriend, and we don't even have insurance," said Mr. Lucas, who lives in a first-floor apartment.
Deputy Fire Chief Robert Metzger said firefighters arrived shortly after 3:30 p.m. to find that the fire, which ravaged the third-floor apartments, had spread into the attic.At least 12 apartment units were damaged in the building, which also has addresses of 1130 and 1134 Brookview, he said.
The second alarm was turned in at 3:37 p.m.
Firefighters Michael Konecki and Keith Lyons were treated at Toledo Hospital for minor injuries, fire department officials said.
Winds at the time were about 10 mph, with gusts up to 20 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
The chief said that once the blaze got into the attic, crews tried to limit its spread with certain fire-fighting techniques, but it had gone too far.
Fire officials did not know last night what caused the blaze; it remains under investigation.
At the height of the blaze, suburban fire departments covered some Toledo fire stations and assisted on calls throughout the city under mutual-aid agreements.
The apartment complex manager, who refused to give her name, said she did not know how many people lived in the building.
"All I can tell you is that there are 36 units. We don't know how many people are displaced or who needs a place," she said.
Kristen Cajka, a spokesman for the Greater Toledo Area Chapter of the American Red Cross, said last night that her organization was assisting 27 people from 17 families.
A crowd of residents from the apartment complex and onlookers gathered to commiserate as firefighters attacked the fire, which quickly moved from one section of the building to another.
"I was just resting on a Friday afternoon when I heard people banging on my windows, yelling for me to get out," said Tracy Scott, who lives with her 17-year-old son on the first floor of the fire-ravaged building.
"I don't know whether to laugh or cry," said Ms. Scott, 46, who has lived in the apartment complex since 2003.
"I didn't take anything with me as I ran out, and now I'm going to have to start all over again. But I'll make it. I'm a survivor," she said.
Contact Karamagi Rujumba at:
krujumba@theblade.com
or 419-724-6064.
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