Several apartments damaged in complex fire
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Clean-up and repairs are underway at an apartment complex that caught fire Wednesday evening in Columbus.
Nikki Jackson was home when the fire broke out at her apartment complex.
“I smelt the smoke, and I’m like, I smell smoke, but I’m still moving around … And the smell got stronger, so I go to the door and that’s when I see everybody outside and they are screaming for us to (come) outside. And that’s when I noticed the apartment on fire,” said Jackson.
Columbus Fire and Rescue was called to Monterrey Apartments on 5th Avenue South shortly after 6 p.m.
When they got there, flames were coming from a top floor apartment.
The cause of the fire has not been determined, but officials know where it started.
“It started on the outside of the balcony… it started out there, ran up the wall and got into the attic … It spread in the attic,” said Columbus Fire Marshal Michael Walker with CFR.
CFR and Columbus Police helped get residents out of the apartments as crews worked to put out the flames.
Officials said some of the top apartments got fire and smoke damage in the attic.
And one unit below got water damage.
“The attic over a couple of units are burnt pretty good inside of it … but it was stopped from going too far down, so it did save a lot of the other ones on the other end,” said Walker.
The roof is only damaged above one unit, but power had to be turned off at the 4 apartments affected.
“You have some wood structure up in the attic that are burned… then you have some areas where they had to breach the ceiling to make sure they put out any hot spots,” said Walker.
CFR said the owners are working to repair the apartments.
Officials said there was no fire damage to the inside of the apartments.
CFR connected the families with the Red Cross and Columbus Homeless Coalition to find housing.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
