photo by: Lauren Fox

Updated at 10:19 a.m. Friday

Lawrence firefighters are investigating the scene of an early-morning fire that affected a dozen units of a central Lawrence apartment complex.

The fire Friday at Village 1 Apartments, 2411 Louisiana St., did not harm any people aside from four minor injuries that were treated at the scene, but did cause almost half a million dollars in property damage at the affected building, according to a news release from Tom Fagan, division chief for Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical.

Fagan said the fire was reported to 911 at 1:03 a.m. Firefighters were dispatched at 1:06 a.m., Fagan said, and they arrived at the scene at 1:13 a.m. He said flames were showing in a first-floor apartment, and Lawrence police were on the scene evacuating residents from multiple units.

One resident was unable to get out and was rescued by firefighters from a third-floor balcony, Fagan said. Five cats were also removed from the building.

Fagan said that firefighters began an “aggressive interior fire attack” and that the fire traveled through the building’s pipe chase, extending to the third floor. The fire was confined to two other apartments, but many units sustained smoke damage, he said.

Village 1 Apartments

Until utilities can be restored, 12 units are “currently untenable,” resulting in 11 displaced residents, he said.

Residents whose apartments were affected have been given support by the American Red Cross.

Property loss is estimated at $450,000, Fagan said, adding that the building did not have a sprinkler system but did have smoke alarms.

Four people had minor injuries, he said, but no one was taken to the hospital. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

The American Red Cross shared additional information Friday morning. Jane Blocher, executive director of the Red Cross’ northeast Kansas chapter, said eight apartment units were destroyed and that as many as 15 residents were affected. She said the Red Cross met with individuals at the scene. Residents whose apartments were destroyed are being put up in hotels or the apartment complex is finding units for them elsewhere in the complex, she said.

Rowan Lee, one of the displaced residents, said he awoke to the sound of the smoke alarm but didn’t move from bed until he actually smelled smoke.

“That’s when I decided to go out and see what was going on,” he said.

Lee, 22, went out into the hallway, saw smoke, and returned to his second-floor apartment to grab a few things. He had to take an alternate staircase to exit his building, because the first one he tried looked too dangerous.

“I just saw that the whole stairwell was in smoke,” he said.

Once Lee was outside, he said he watched the fire burn as other people from the complex stood nearby. The firefighters were already on the scene by the time he made it outside, he said.

“Once the fire started to get a little bit more out of control that’s when people started yelling around, saying, ‘Fire! Fire!’ Stuff like that,” Lee said.

Another resident, Charon Dillon, called it a blessing that her family was in the process of moving.

“We weren’t sleeping there last night. It was a blessing for us,” Dillon, 25, said. She has a fiancé and two children.

Dillon heard about the fire this morning from concerned friends and family.

“That’s a good part about the community and being from here,” she said. “I woke up to a lot of text messages and calls.”

When Dillon arrived to the complex Friday morning around 8, she said she could smell stale smoke but her apartment did not look too bad.

“I guess my initial reaction was feeling blessed my children weren’t in there last night. Because I don’t think we would have been hurt too badly if we stayed in there, but just the trauma of them having to be woken up from their sleep and taken out would have been not fun,” she said.

photo by: Lauren Fox