Post by engine922 on Mar 21, 2008 22:42:22 GMT -5
This occured yesterday morning. Plainfield Twp is located on the north side of the City of Grand Rapids. Article and photos courtesy of woodtv.com.
PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) -- An apartment fire has 19 households without a home, at least for Thursday night.
The township fire chief says the fire started when a pot was left on the stove in a first-floor apartment at the Franklin Mill Apartment complex.
The man living in the unit wasn't home when the fire broke out sometime after noon Thursday. A friend says the man came home to find his apartment filled with smoke. He grabbed his pet bird and ran outside.
Calista Hemmes is among those without a home for now. She lives at the other end of the 24-unit building west of Mayfield Avenue north of Four Mile Road. A friend woke Hemmes up after he heard pounding on the door.
"They're all telling us to evacuate and the fire is already going. The apartment is already halfway gone," she recalled.
Hemmes and others living in the 19 occupied units of the building were all evacuated and none was injured, according to Plainfield Fire Chief David Peterson.
But one of Peterson's firefighters was taken to a hospital.
"They had everybody surrounding him. Three firefighters surrounding him," Hemmes recalled. "And they brought him out to the ambulance."
The firefighter tore an Achilles tendon coming down from a fire truck. He was later released from the hospital.
Roughly half of the building's units are no longer livable, according to Peterson. Those living in the other half were able to get in to grab some belongings. But no one will be able to spend the night inside.
The blaze began in that first-floor unit but spread to an occupied unit on the second floor. The fire chief says he is not sure if anyone was in that second-floor unit at the time. Fire eventually spread to the attic.
The explosion of what firefighters say was an oxygen tank and the sound of ammunition stored in a nearby apartment catching fire rattled some neighbors.
"I was sitting doing homework for school on my computer," neighbor Curtis Wicksall said. "I heard a lot of pops, a lot of cracks. It wasn't like a fire. They were loud."
The American Red Cross of Greater Grand Rapids says some of those in the building have family to stay with. Others will be able to stay in vacant apartments elsewhere at Franklin Mill. The remainder will need emergency assistance.
PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) -- An apartment fire has 19 households without a home, at least for Thursday night.
The township fire chief says the fire started when a pot was left on the stove in a first-floor apartment at the Franklin Mill Apartment complex.
The man living in the unit wasn't home when the fire broke out sometime after noon Thursday. A friend says the man came home to find his apartment filled with smoke. He grabbed his pet bird and ran outside.
Calista Hemmes is among those without a home for now. She lives at the other end of the 24-unit building west of Mayfield Avenue north of Four Mile Road. A friend woke Hemmes up after he heard pounding on the door.
"They're all telling us to evacuate and the fire is already going. The apartment is already halfway gone," she recalled.
Hemmes and others living in the 19 occupied units of the building were all evacuated and none was injured, according to Plainfield Fire Chief David Peterson.
But one of Peterson's firefighters was taken to a hospital.
"They had everybody surrounding him. Three firefighters surrounding him," Hemmes recalled. "And they brought him out to the ambulance."
The firefighter tore an Achilles tendon coming down from a fire truck. He was later released from the hospital.
Roughly half of the building's units are no longer livable, according to Peterson. Those living in the other half were able to get in to grab some belongings. But no one will be able to spend the night inside.
The blaze began in that first-floor unit but spread to an occupied unit on the second floor. The fire chief says he is not sure if anyone was in that second-floor unit at the time. Fire eventually spread to the attic.
The explosion of what firefighters say was an oxygen tank and the sound of ammunition stored in a nearby apartment catching fire rattled some neighbors.
"I was sitting doing homework for school on my computer," neighbor Curtis Wicksall said. "I heard a lot of pops, a lot of cracks. It wasn't like a fire. They were loud."
The American Red Cross of Greater Grand Rapids says some of those in the building have family to stay with. Others will be able to stay in vacant apartments elsewhere at Franklin Mill. The remainder will need emergency assistance.