Three firefighters were taken to Hurley Medical Center Tuesday, Nov. 22, after a large fire at Village Shores Apartments in Flint.
Flint fire Chief Raymond Barton said two of the firefighters managed to escape through a balcony of an apartment, while a third firefighter escaped through a window in the back of one of three buildings at the complex, which is off Lippincott Boulevard.
“One of the firefighter’s tanks, his alarm started going off,” said Barton. “When he switched tanks, he went to come back in and the fire had spread, dropped down from the ceiling.”
The injuries sustained by the firefighters are not believed to be life-threatening. Flames were still coming from the roof of the building hours after the initial call around 3 p.m. Nov 22.
Large fire at Flint apartment complex sends smoke above downtown
Flint firefighters have been joined by crews from Grand Blanc, Burton and other local departments where smoke and flames continued to waft into the sky above the city including the downtown area.
A woman and her grandchild inside the third-floor apartment where the fire began were not injured, Barton said. Several residents watched on from their balconies as firefighters attempted to douse hot spots.
Roderick Smith lives in the building and does some maintenance for the complex. When the fire started, Smith said property managers knocked on his garden-level window and asked him to help get everyone out of the building.
When he went to the back of the building, he saw a man and woman trapped on an upper balcony.
“It’s a lot different than when you’re watching something like this happen on TV. I couldn’t even look,” Smith said.
The man and woman began climbing down the balcony to escape the flames, according to Smith.
“I thought for sure (the woman) was going to fall. I was like, this is not real,” Smith said.
Ollie Jackson also lives in the complex, but in a different building. When she saw police cruisers go past her window, she decided to step outside and see what was going on.
“I came out to see what was going on and I saw smoke coming out of the windows. Then, all of a sudden, the flames started shooting out,” Jackson said. “It’s a shame with all the people that didn’t have nothing to do with this that lost everything.”
Barton was not sure how many residents had been displaced. The American Red Cross has set up a station to help residents at the scene where firefighters from multiple agencies continued to work on putting out hot spots.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
