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Sounds like something out of a fucking nightmare. Also sounds like arson, with it spreading that quick, but it has been really hot and dry for the last month. Hope these people had renters insurance, and RIP to those that didn't make it out.
ARLINGTON — A three-alarm fire exploded through an Arlington apartment building Saturday afternoon, killing a child and an adult, injuring two others and forcing screaming residents to leap from a second-floor breezeway.
"I ran outside and saw a man in the parking lot with his legs and hands on fire," resident Karen Seabolt said.
The victims had not been officially identified Sunday. An adult male was in critical condition with burns at Parkland Memorial Hospital and an adult female was being treated at an Arlington hospital, said Jim Self, assistant Arlington fire chief.
Authorities were still unable to account for two other adults, he said.
The flames erupted about 1 p.m. at the Tanglewood Apartments, 2115 E. Abram St., a complex just west of the General Motors plant. The first firefighters arrived five minutes after the first call and found the second floor of a 20-unit building fully engulfed in flames.
It took about 30 minutes for firefighters to get control of the fire, Self said. A "juvenile girl," Self said, was found in an upstairs unit during the initial search of the building.
The adult victim was found in a different second-floor unit during a subsequent search, he said. The search was challenging because the building was unstable from fire damage and there was a great deal of debris.
Self declined to say if the fire was suspicious because the investigation had just started. However, he said officials were “very curious” why the building was already burning so intensely upon the firefighters' arrival.
The fire displaced at least 15 families, Self said.
Apartment residents described a nightmarish inferno that burned the building "like kindling." Oscar Vela, who lives in a second-floor unit, said he was cleaning up when he heard a window break.
He flung his front door open and was greeted by flames. Wearing only jeans, he jumped from the balcony to the parking lot.
"No time to knock on doors," Vela said. "All you could do was jump."
Wendy Braley said she barely had to time to grab her small dog, Precious, before fleeing her burning apartment. Carrying her dog, she tripped in the parking lot and fell against a pickup truck. It was so hot from the flames that it burned the skin off her arm.
The burned-out remnants of several cars and a trucks could be seen in the parking lot.
"You felt like just the heat could kill you," Braley said, her arm bandaged by paramedics. "I thought I was going to die."
As firefighter poured water on smoldering parts of the building, residents gathered in a courtyard trying to account for everyone. One resident said he believed his 11-year-old sister was the child who died.
She was home alone in an upstairs unit and had called a family member to say that someone was banging on the door. Unaware there was a fire, she was told her to hide while they called 911.
No one had seen her since, the resident said.
"She's a great girl, and I'm scared that’s her up there," he said. "We need information."
Lisa Roberts, the apartment's assistant manager, said all the apartment units have smoke detectors. But the units are so small that simply cooking on the stove can activate them, so some residents take them off the wall, she said.
Roberts’ unit burned along with all her possessions.
She sobbed as she asked other residents if they had seen the apartment's house cleaner, who lived in an apartment above her. The housekeeper was her best friend who helped Roberts as she recovered from health problems, she said.
"I just pray that she is ok," she said, crying.
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/07...#ixzz1R3xNUn36
ARLINGTON — A three-alarm fire exploded through an Arlington apartment building Saturday afternoon, killing a child and an adult, injuring two others and forcing screaming residents to leap from a second-floor breezeway.
"I ran outside and saw a man in the parking lot with his legs and hands on fire," resident Karen Seabolt said.
The victims had not been officially identified Sunday. An adult male was in critical condition with burns at Parkland Memorial Hospital and an adult female was being treated at an Arlington hospital, said Jim Self, assistant Arlington fire chief.
Authorities were still unable to account for two other adults, he said.
The flames erupted about 1 p.m. at the Tanglewood Apartments, 2115 E. Abram St., a complex just west of the General Motors plant. The first firefighters arrived five minutes after the first call and found the second floor of a 20-unit building fully engulfed in flames.
It took about 30 minutes for firefighters to get control of the fire, Self said. A "juvenile girl," Self said, was found in an upstairs unit during the initial search of the building.
The adult victim was found in a different second-floor unit during a subsequent search, he said. The search was challenging because the building was unstable from fire damage and there was a great deal of debris.
Self declined to say if the fire was suspicious because the investigation had just started. However, he said officials were “very curious” why the building was already burning so intensely upon the firefighters' arrival.
The fire displaced at least 15 families, Self said.
Apartment residents described a nightmarish inferno that burned the building "like kindling." Oscar Vela, who lives in a second-floor unit, said he was cleaning up when he heard a window break.
He flung his front door open and was greeted by flames. Wearing only jeans, he jumped from the balcony to the parking lot.
"No time to knock on doors," Vela said. "All you could do was jump."
Wendy Braley said she barely had to time to grab her small dog, Precious, before fleeing her burning apartment. Carrying her dog, she tripped in the parking lot and fell against a pickup truck. It was so hot from the flames that it burned the skin off her arm.
The burned-out remnants of several cars and a trucks could be seen in the parking lot.
"You felt like just the heat could kill you," Braley said, her arm bandaged by paramedics. "I thought I was going to die."
As firefighter poured water on smoldering parts of the building, residents gathered in a courtyard trying to account for everyone. One resident said he believed his 11-year-old sister was the child who died.
She was home alone in an upstairs unit and had called a family member to say that someone was banging on the door. Unaware there was a fire, she was told her to hide while they called 911.
No one had seen her since, the resident said.
"She's a great girl, and I'm scared that’s her up there," he said. "We need information."
Lisa Roberts, the apartment's assistant manager, said all the apartment units have smoke detectors. But the units are so small that simply cooking on the stove can activate them, so some residents take them off the wall, she said.
Roberts’ unit burned along with all her possessions.
She sobbed as she asked other residents if they had seen the apartment's house cleaner, who lived in an apartment above her. The housekeeper was her best friend who helped Roberts as she recovered from health problems, she said.
"I just pray that she is ok," she said, crying.
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/07...#ixzz1R3xNUn36
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