DETROIT – Crews battled a fire Saturday morning at a Detroit apartment building.
The apartment is at 11615 Woodward Avenue, near the border of Highland Park. The fire started on the third floor of the four story building.
All resident Carla Clair could do was watch and wait as the fire continued to burn. Her apartment was on the second floor of the building. She said she’s blessed, but worried about her neighbors.
On-site manager Anthony Kemp said there are roughly 30 units and about 70 people call the building home.
"Reportedly, one of the tenants left something on in her apartment, and the fire spread out of her apartment,” Kemp said.
Several residents said they called 911, but the line was busy, so a resident drove to a fire station to report the fire, but authorities said they are unaware of any busy signal.
“I don’t know about that. The bell goes off at the fire station, we come. We don’t know anything about 911 or none of that,” Detroit Fire Chief Michael Jefferson said.
Local 4 also heard complaints about a fire hydrant not working in front of the building. Jefferson said that hydrant was working, but they had to use other ones for tactical reasons.
“It would have been in the way because the fire truck that had to hook up to that hydrant wouldn’t allow for a ladder truck to get in position to possibly rescue people from other floors,” Jefferson said
Multiple injuries have been reported. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.