Overnight Apartment Fire Leaves Residents Displaced
McKEESPORT (KDKA) -- Residents of a McKeesport apartment building have been temporarily displaced following an overnight fire that destroyed one apartment and damaged two others.
The flames broke out around 3 a.m. at the Hi View Gardens apartments located in the 500-block of Coursin Street. Multiple calls came in to 911 about the fire.
KDKA's Heather Abraham reports that firefighters were concerned about getting everyone out of the building because of previous false alarms there.
McKeesport Deputy Fire Chief Don Sabol says it appears the fire may have started from a cooking accident.
Police helped to make sure the residents were accounted for.
"They did a great job of doing accountability," said Chief Sabol. "Broke into a few apartments, made sure everyone was out of the building."
Fire crews reportedly needed to run extra hose line in order to reach the building and put out the fire.
Officials say one of the apartments was destroyed and two others had some smoke damage. There are 30 apartment units in the building.
"My husband was awake and he woke us all up, said, 'We got to get out now.' By the time we got out, we couldn't see anything... so much smoke," said Jessica Beal, a tenant. "We hit the floor and got out. We were the last ones out."
The utilities have also been turned off in the building, but the deputy fire chief is hoping that's just temporary and the tenants will be allowed to return to their apartments at some point.
There were no injuries. The Red Cross is helping 11 adults and eight children, and many others were able to stay with friends and family.
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