BARBOURSVILLE, W.Va. –An investigation is underway after a early Tuesday morning fire broke out destroying a three-story apartment building in Barboursville.
The blaze broke at the Garden Park Apartments on Pea Ridge around 1 a.m., destroying 21 units.
Investigator with the State Fire Marshal’s Office Timothy Chastain says that right now the investigation is in the preliminary stages.
“We know around about where the fire started but we don’t have an actual causation yet, so it may take some because of the stability of the structure where that fire originated at, there are some safety concerns,” Chastain said.
He said that the fire originated in one of the bottom units, and that the resident is in the hospital with burns and smoke inhalation injuries. He was concerned with whether the building was going to collapse any more so they were waiting to see what happens before they go back inside to see if they can find a cause of the blaze. He said right now they don’t suspect criminal activity.
Currently, Chastain said that about 18 to 20 residents are displaced.
The back of the building sustained the most damage with some vehicles being damaged also.
“There were several vehicles that sustained damages, down over the hill there’s multiple vehicles that sustained even more damage down there where the fire originated at,” Chastain said.
Also behind the building, a volunteer Barboursville firefighter suffered a neck injury from falling debris while he was performing fire suppression activities.
One resident of the building, Julia Hightower, told MetroNews that she thought someone was burring food, however when she looked outside of her apartment door, she saw smoke coming out of her neighbor’s apartment.
“At that point, I went back into my apartment, grabbed my dogs and my keys and go out of my apartment,” she said.
All volunteer fire departments in Cabell County, Huntington Fire Department, state Fire Marshal’s office, EMS and sheriff’s office responded to the blaze.
Chastain says that crews were able to get the blaze under control about hour and a half after the fire was reported.
“They did a very good job containing the fire, it would have been a whole lot worse and probably would have ended up with more injuries if not fatalities, but there was a very quick response from the departments in the county,” he said.
Hightower said that if it wasn’t for one neighbor that they had, there could have been more injuries as the flames engulfed the building.
“There was one guy who was pounding on the doors waking up everyone upstairs and downstairs,” she said. “I’m very thankful for that one neighbor, because as quickly as it was engulfing, it could have potentially saved somebody.”