SHARE Phil Daubenspeck shared this photo of a fire in the 300 block of Wycoff on Facebook. A Bremerton firefighter takes position in a neighbor's yard to spray water on a fire at an apartment building on Wycoff Avenue in Bremerton on Saturday, July 16, 2106. LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN Residents escaped a fire at an apartment complex on Wycoff Avenue in Bremerton Saturday, July 16, 2106. One injury was reported. LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN Kenneth Patterson, left, dropped his crutches and entered the Wycoff Avenue apartment building to help residents escape a fire Saturday, July 16, 2106. Patterson and Antonio Masga, right, saw the flames as they drove past on Sixth Street. LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN

By Tad Sooter

BREMERTON — One woman was injured jumping from a window to escape flames that tore through a small apartment building Saturday morning in West Bremerton.

Bremerton Fire Chief Al Duke said the rest of the building's occupants got out safely, though many lost all their belongings. About 15 people were displaced by the fire.

Several callers reported the blaze at about 8 a.m., including a Bremerton Fire duty chief who was driving back from another incident when he spotted the fire. Witnesses said they saw large flames spreading rapidly from an apartment on the second floor of the three-story building at 321 N Wycoff Ave., just south of Sixth Street.

"I saw the flames were going, and going and getting big," said Priscilla Daniels, who lives across the street from the apartments. She grabbed her phone and called 911.

Inside the apartment building, Ryan Toliver, 17, was awakened by relatives who told him the porch of their second-story home was on fire. Toliver ran to the balcony and saw flames sweeping in from a neighboring apartment.

"I realized there was literally nothing I could do," he said.

Toliver and his family escaped the building with only the clothes they were wearing. They watched from the street as fire engulfed their apartment.

Neighbors, passers-by and two police officers rushed inside the complex to help residents get out. Rosemary Figueroa, Antonio Masga and Kenneth Patterson were driving west on Sixth Street when they saw flames billowing from the building. They pulled over, and Masga and Patterson made their way inside the smoke-clogged structure.

"We were banging on people's doors, trying to get them out," said Patterson, who helped a child on the second floor get down to the street. The heat was too intense to reach the third floor, Patterson said.

Firefighters swept the building for remaining residents before extinguishing the blaze.

"That's your main concern when you get here, making sure everyone gets out," Duke said. "You can always rebuild a building."

He added bystanders aren't encouraged to enter burning buildings to help because they could also become trapped inside.

Fire crews from Bremerton, Central Kitsap, South Kitsap and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard responded to the scene. Firefighters were still searching for hot spots in the building at 10 a.m. The cause of the fire was under investigation.

A 77-year-old woman who jumped from a window to escape the building was taken to Harrison Medical Center for treatment of a minor leg injury and smoke inhalation, Duke said. No other injuries were reported. Duke said none of the tenants in the six-unit building had renter's insurance. The Red Cross was offering assistance.

Residents, many barefoot, milled on the street outside the building as firefighters finished their work. Friends and relatives brought clothes, shoes and blankets.

Resident Lynda McMahon, 50, said she lost all her possessions in the fire. She wasn't sure where she and her family was going to stay.

"I don't know what's going to happen now," she said.