Fire burns University Place apartment building
UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. - Six people are without a home after an apartment fire broke out in University Place Monday afternoon.
The fire at the two story, four unit Boulder Park Apartments broke out just after noon.
"When I opened the door, the smoke was really, really bad, so when I opened the door, we grabbed the dogs," said fire victim Gloria Garcia.
The fire started in Chris Christoffersen's unit. She and her daughter were unable to save their kittens.
"About 13 of them," she said. "I had little kittens that I was trying to find homes for, and then I had some adult cats."
But when they saw the smoke, they were more concerned with getting out and making sure neighbors did the same.
"We went door to door to make sure everyone got out," she said.
Four units were destroyed, but the six people who lived there all made it out safely, and they credit working smoke alarms and a quick firefighter response.
Firefighters say they already have an idea of how the fire started.
"In talking to some of the neighbors, they believe... she believes what happened is she turned on the heater this morning, and apparently there was something that had fallen down behind a couch, and laying on top of the baseboard heater, and so that's what we believe," one fire official said.
The Red Cross is aiding the six people displaced.
The fire at the two story, four unit Boulder Park Apartments broke out just after noon.
"When I opened the door, the smoke was really, really bad, so when I opened the door, we grabbed the dogs," said fire victim Gloria Garcia.
The fire started in Chris Christoffersen's unit. She and her daughter were unable to save their kittens.
"About 13 of them," she said. "I had little kittens that I was trying to find homes for, and then I had some adult cats."
But when they saw the smoke, they were more concerned with getting out and making sure neighbors did the same.
"We went door to door to make sure everyone got out," she said.
Four units were destroyed, but the six people who lived there all made it out safely, and they credit working smoke alarms and a quick firefighter response.
Firefighters say they already have an idea of how the fire started.
"In talking to some of the neighbors, they believe... she believes what happened is she turned on the heater this morning, and apparently there was something that had fallen down behind a couch, and laying on top of the baseboard heater, and so that's what we believe," one fire official said.
The Red Cross is aiding the six people displaced.