More than 40 are displaced after 3-alarm apartment fire
8/21/2006 (Source: star-telegram.com)
Jeff Benezue, a D/FW Airport firefighter and paramedic, watches from a distance as a fire is extinguished at the Collins Park at Bear Creek complex in Euless. No residents were injured, but a firefighter was taken to a hospital with heat exhaustion.
EULESS -- An accidental fire destroyed a 24-unit apartment building in Euless on Sunday evening, authorities said.
More than 40 people lost their homes in the three-alarm blaze, which started about 6 p.m. at the Collins Park at Bear Creek apartments along Texas 360, south of Mid-Cities Boulevard, Assistant Fire Chief Robert Isbell said. It took 50 firefighters to get the fire under control, Isbell said. No residents were injured, but one firefighter was taken to a hospital with heat exhaustion, he said. Crews of firefighters were rotated in and out to try to combat the heat. They were also slowed by the location of the building, No. 6, in the back of the apartment complex. "It was hard to get equipment back there, and we could only attack from the one side," Isbell said. The fire appears to have spread quickly from a breezeway on the third floor through the attic, Isbell said. A third-floor resident told investigators that a candle fell over and caught a mattress on fire, Isbell said. The resident said the mattress was dragged out of the apartment into the breezeway, and the fire spread from there. A group of residents from the building gathered at the complex's entrance to meet with friends and family. The Red Cross was helping them find a place to stay the night. They said the fire spread quickly. One man fled without a shirt and had to wear one from a neighbor. Christine Bensen, 33, lives in building 7, but her parents lived in 6. When they saw the flames, they went from apartment to apartment -- with Bensen's son, 1-year-old Ryan, in tow -- banging on doors, telling their neighbors to get out. She had burns on the back of her neck from falling embers. "We had gotten half the people out before the smoke detectors went off," Bensen said. Ryan was all right but "a little shaken up from hearing his mom scream her head off," she said. Division Chief and Fire Marshal Paul Smith said that because the fire spread through the breezeway and attic, it may have bypassed smoke detectors until it was already roaring. New apartment buildings are now required to have smoke detectors and sprinklers in their attics, he said. By MARK AGEE STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
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