Here is an update. Article and photos courtesy of Kalamazoo Gazette.
OSHTEMO TOWNSHIP -- The flames were so intense, Stephanie Maciejewski could feel the heat on her bedroom window.
For Abraham Kaseb, the images early Saturday were some of the worst he had ever seen -- crackling fire splintering and bursting through wood as it spread and caused significant damage to an Oshtemo Township apartment building.
The 3:35 a.m. blaze in Nottingham Place Apartments at 652 S. Drake Road displaced about 12 residents and proved a challenge for firefighters who had to rescue two adults, two children and two dogs from a third-floor balcony.
Another resident jumped to the ground from a second-floor balcony and suffered a minor knee injury, authorities said. No major injuries were reported.
"The fire was really high in the sky," said Kaseb, 21, a sophomore at Western Michigan University who lives in a nearby building and was returning home at about 3:40 a.m. when he saw the flames.
"I couldn't believe it. By the time I went to bed at about 5 a.m., they were still trying to put the fire out."
Firefighters from four area departments responded to the scene after receiving a report of a kitchen fire. When they arrived, firefighters saw people trapped on a third-floor balcony, said Paul Karnemaat, interim chief of the Oshtemo Township Fire Department.
There was fire on the second floor of the building, and flames on the third floor had breached the attic space and the roof, he said.
Karnemaat said the challenge for firefighters was to rescue the four people and pets on the balcony before the floor and ceiling collapsed. As flames were "all around and overhead," he said, firefighters Grant Gelling and Matt Carlson and Byron Cooper, a paramedic from Life EMS ambulance service, got a ladder to the balcony.
Carson directed a large stream from a fire truck's water deck gun at the fire overhead as the people and their dogs were helped onto the ladder and brought to safety, Karnemaat said.
"Time was absolutely of the essence," Karnemaat said. "The first priority when they got there was a rescue scenario. I can't tell you how proud I am of these kids. They made a quick, correct decision."
Firefighters spent five hours battling the blaze and seven more finding hidden hot spots. Karnemaat said firefighters were hampered by 8 to 10 inches of snow in the building's parking lot and low water pressure. He said authorities were able to contact officials who boosted the water pressure.
"The whole parking lot was filled with fire trucks, and there was water everywhere," said Maciejewski, 21, a WMU senior who lives in a building adjacent to the one damaged in the blaze.
Nine families living in the 11-unit building who were displaced by the fire were provided hotel rooms, clothing and food by the American Red Cross. Authorities said two of the building's units were vacant at the time of the blaze.
"It is an unfortunate set of circumstances on Easter weekend, but the good point is that everyone walked away from this," Karnemaat said. "Everyone is alive. Material things can be replaced."
Karnemaat said authorities believe the fire, which remains under investigation, started on the building's second floor. He said the first floor of the building was damaged substantially by water, smoke and heat.
