Pair escape fire by leaping from 2nd floor

1/31/2001

Two people jumped from a second-story bedroom window after a fire started yesterday in the living room of an apartment at Sunnybrook Meadows Apartments and caused about $500,000 damage, authorities said.

Alisha King, 19, and her boyfriend, Paul Massamore, 21, were treated at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center after the fire at 5555 Lewis Ave., Apt. 128.

The fire was reported about 3:25 a.m., said Denis Bembenek of the Toledo fire investigation unit.

The cause is undetermined, but it may have been started by a discarded cigarette, fire officials said. The fire burned through the ceiling and spread to two adjacent apartments. Those units sustained damage to the roof and ceiling area, Mr. Bembenek said.

Mid-America Management of llinois owns the apartments. A smoke detector in the apartment was inoperable because of a dead battery, Mr. Bembenek said.