Incident # 23-03760 - A duplex apartment at 5674 Ritter Road suffered heavy damage in an early morning fire Saturday 27-May. At 09:02, the occupant in apartment C smelled smoke. Upon investigation, he discovered flames coming from the front windows of apartment D. He was able to safely get his family out of his apartment and called 9-1-1. Engine 6 arrived to find heavy smoke conditions and flames coming from the front window on the west side of the building. Firefighter-Paramedics deployed one handline to the building and knocked the flames down from the exterior, before entering the structure through the front door. A quick search of the building revealed no occupants. Crews extinguished the remaining fire inside apartment D. A block wall protected apartment C, but flames in the attic traveled over the wall and charred the attic in the adjacent apartment. Firefighters pulled a portion of the ceiling in apartment C but there was very little extension into apartment C. Apartment D received heavy damage with the family losing much of their belongings. Apartment C received smoke damage. No injuries were reported. An excited family member rapidly drove through the fire scene, narrowly missing two firefighters working outside and side swiped one of the fire trucks that was parked in the driveway. Luckily no one was injured. The cause of the fire appears to have been electrical in nature starting around an outlet in a front bedroom. Units were on the scene for 2-1/2 hours.
