Last Updated on November 14, 2021, 4:21 PM | Published: March 30, 2021
OKLAHOMA CITY (Free Press) — An apartment fire Monday afternoon destroyed 12 units and resulted in smoke damage for more according to Oklahoma City Fire Department officials.
One individual, the apartment manager, was treated for smoke inhalation and transported to the hospital. She had evacuated the residents of the apartments in the building as the fire first started.
Representatives of the management company for The Haven complex were seen gathering names and talking with residents that had been suddenly displaced by the fire.
The complex sits between N.W. 4th Street, Robert S. Kerr, N. Dewey, and N. Shartel. (See the illustration below.)
The building closest to Robert S. Kerr street sustained the most damage where Battalion Chief Benny Fulkerson said the fire likely started. He is the public information officer for the department.
No time
We talked with several residents as they stood across the street, some in bare feet, watching their apartments burn.
Billy Ford, who is deaf, signed that he was watching TV and smelled smoke, then felt the wall and it was hot. He had only enough time to run out and into the parking lot as smoke was starting to gather in his unit.
His mother, Margaret Ford, arrived and said that they had been displaced in February when their home burned. She is living in a different apartment and was not affected by the fire.
Others who didn’t want to be named in this report said that they had just enough time to run out as the fire took off.
A representative of the management company was busy taking down information from those who had been displaced to start trying to find sister properties where the displaced residents could be relocated.
Large demand
Fulkerson told Free Press in a phone call that the three-alarm fire involved 50-60 firefighters crewing six engine companies and two to three ladder companies.
“I just want to thank the people of Oklahoma City for providing us with the best equipment and funding enough firefighters to successfully take on a fire of this size,” said Fulkerson.
“This fire is significant in that it’s the first fire fought with Ladder 1, a brand new unit brought on line just last Friday.”
Major Louis Marschik with the PIO office estimated that the damages are close to $1 million, although that is a wide estimate.
Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.
