Residents Evacuated As Smoke Fills Wilkinsburg High-Rise

WILKINSBURG (KDKA) - Residents were forced from their apartments when smoke filled a local high-rise.

Just after midnight, a fire was reported in the elevator room on the first floor of the Douglas Plaza Apartments on Laketon Road in Wilkinsburg.

The fire went to three alarms, as smoke filled the top floors of the apartment building. More than a dozen emergency and fire vehicles were called to the scene to help.

Residents were evacuated. One woman was taken to the hospital for treatment. Several other elderly residents had to be helped out of the building by emergency crews.

"I wasn't sleeping. I was watching TV and I heard the alarm. I jumped up and got my coat and came on out," Sylvia Weir said. "I smelled the smoke. I did not see it. Once I got down on the lobby, I stayed there."

Tenant Deborah Williams went upstairs to the fourth floor to check on her son, who also lives in the building.

"I went up to see about him, you could smell a little bit on it, but they said between the fifth and eighth floor is where the fire was," she said.

Fire officials are looking into the cause of the fire.

The scene was cleared around 2 a.m. and people were allowed back inside the building.

There was some smoke and fire damage in the elevator room and several apartments had minor smoke damage.

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