| By Big Radio News Staff |
The Janesville Fire Department says all residents in a 26-unit apartment at the Surrey Ridge complex evacuated a blaze that engulfed the entire upstairs and roof.
Fire Chief Ryan Murphy says as of late Monday, fire officials were still working to learn a cause. Murphy says firefighters first went inside the building to fight the fire at the apartments at the 2600 block of East Racine Street.
Murphy says firefighters had to evacuate and fight with water from the outside after the fire raced across the roof and spread rapidly and engulfed the upper floor. The blaze broke out about 1:45 p.m. (Monday). He indicates all residents who occupied 23 of 26 units in the apartments evacuated.
One tenant, Alex DeWitt, told Big Radio he noticed smoke upstairs and ran through the second floor hallway alerting residents to get out. He says at first he thought the fire alarm was workers using power tools, but then he saw and smelled smoke everywhere.
An apartment manager told Big Radio the apartments’ groundskeepers noticed smoke coming from a wood pillar at the building’s central entrance. They kicked the pillar over, but the fire apparently continued to spread.
The apartment manager asked not to be named over concerns of her security in the wake of the fire. She says a handful of residents had just moved in.
The woman says once she saw fire spouting out of the eves of the building, the roof and upstairs units begin to go up in flames “like nothing doing.” She says one disabled man was in the basement, but she says police and firefighters helped him get out safely.
A Red Cross official says they’re now working to take stock of how many residents are displaced, but they’ve committed to helping all those affected. Dozens of people from the apartments were standing in the lawn Monday afternoon as fire crews poured thousands of gallons of water on the blaze.
Other buildings in the complex were apparently unaffected.
A damage estimate wasn’t immediately available.
WCLO will bring you more details on this story as we learn more.
