Nearly 25 People Displaced After Apartment Building Fire Spreads To Homes In Hunting Park
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Nearly two dozen people were displaced after their apartment building caught fire. The fire happened on the 4400 block of North Broad Street in Hunting Park.
The fire prompted officials to divert traffic away from this section of Broad Street for several hours. Residents say while no was injured, they've lost everything.
Clouds of black smoke and flames seen vividly in the distance stalled traffic and distracted drivers on the busy North Broad Street while leaving dozens of residents without shelter.
"This is just very shocking. It's a little nerve shocking because like I said I was in there a couple minutes before all this happened," a resident said.
The Wednesday afternoon fire began in this three-story apartment building on North Broad and Roosevelt Boulevard and then spread to at least three homes.
A woman who asked not to be identified says this is where she lived with her two girls.
"It hurts. It's not my first loss but I'm just over it. I have two young ones so me losing something like this is just very detrimental," she said. "We lost furniture, I think we lost one or two TVs, some clothes, of course, their toys but outside of that I still haven't fully did a whole search of what was destroyed. But it's a lot of water in my apartment."
It took about 40 minutes to get the fire under control. Nearly 75 firefighters, medics, chiefs and support personnel were involved in this firefight. One firefighter sustained burns to his hand but is expected to be OK.
Residents just want to know what happened.
"I personally see a lot of people coming in and out of that house a lot but they're not really giving us information on what's going on. Me living there I should be able to know something," a resident said.
No residents were injured. The fire marshal is looking into what caused this fire.
