Three families displaced by Christmas fire
Published 5:29 pm Saturday, December 29, 2018
Eric Williams/The Orange Leader Firefighters battle an apartment fire, which left three families homeless Christmas morning.
Eric Williams/The Orange Leader Firefighters battle an apartment fire, which left three families homeless Christmas morning.
Eric Williams/The Orange Leader Firefighters battle an apartment fire, which left three families homeless Christmas morning.
Eric Williams/The Orange Leader Firefighters battle an apartment fire, which left three families homeless Christmas morning.
Eric Williams/The Orange Leader Firefighters battle an apartment fire, which left three families homeless Christmas morning.
Eric Williams/The Orange Leader Firefighters battle an apartment fire, which left three families homeless Christmas morning.
By Eric Williams
The Orange Leader
Three families are now homeless after their apartment building went up in flames on Christmas Day.
Tuesday morning, shortly after 10 a.m., the City Of Orange Fire Department responded to a report of a possible structure fire in the 1900 block of Barkins Avenue at the Craig Homes Apartments.
Upon arrival on scene, firefighters found a single story apartment building on fire with heavy black smoke coming from the unit.
“I am alive and well after being awakened by my neighbor who noticed the blaze as he was leaving,” Ron Gary, resident, said. “Had it not been for him alerting us, this could have been a more tragic situation.”
The fire appears to have started in another unit, that was empty at the time, in the kitchen area.
Gary’s home is not a total loss but suffered major smoke and water damage. The units all suffered smoke damage due to the connecting attic to the units.
Firefighters were able to quickly extinguish the blaze inside the building but had to cut through the roof to attack the attic fire.
The cause of the fire is not known at the time but remains under investigation by the City Fire Marshall.
No injuries were reported from the fire.
