MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A fire at an apartment building at Marjorie Gardens in Morgantown has resulted in multiple injuries and close to a dozen residents becoming displaced.
The Brookhaven Volunteer Fire Department was the first to respond among a half dozen different departments around the Morgantown area to the scene early Wednesday night, where a fire inside an apartment on the lower end of a building at the start of the property resulted in two injuries.
Residents who lived inside the singular building were evacuated as crews from the Morgantown Fire Department, Westover Volunteer Fire Department, Star City VFD, the Granville Fire Department, and Cool Springs worked to isolate the fire less than two hours after it was called in.
“We had a fire in a downstairs apartment, that apartment was fully involved when the first units arrived on scene,” said Brookhaven Volunteer Fire Department Chief Jimmy Lipscomb, who was among the first to arrive on scene. “There are a total of 10 apartments in this building here, nine of them were occupied, and one was vacant, at this time, we’ve got everyone evacuated, but we did send two people to the hospital to get checked.”
According to Lipscomb, emergency crews were able to contain the fire to the point of origin as the residents inside the complex were evacuated within minutes of arriving. Mon EMS responded to the scene after injuries were confirmed, with the residents that were reported to be hurt taken to a hospital for further evaluation. Brookhaven VFD firefighters responded to the call after flames were seen from residential complex Bluegrass Village several hundred yards away.
“We got the initial call after they were getting reports from down in Bluegrass Village, right behind it here, that they had heavy fire showing at the initial call,” said Lipscomb. “So we called in extra units since this is a heavily populated area and buildings are close together.”
Evacuated residents were unable to reenter the building at the advisement of Lipscomb and other senior fire officials who were on scene. This was due to the physical aspects of the building that could cause a reignition, as well as the fire remaining ongoing despite containment within the lower apartment where the origin was determined. Damage assessments were taken by landlords at Marjorie Gardens after residents were safely evacuated.
“The blocked building holds a lot of heat, it was confined to the apartment of origin, so we contained the fire to there,” said Lipscomb. “So we’re just waiting to make sure everything is out, and then we’re going to have probably about 10 or 12 people displaced.”
Lipscomb also confirmed that the West Virginia State Fire Marshal’s Office will conduct an investigation into the cause of the fire. This is due to the high cost value of the building that was damaged, which housed ten apartments that had leases sold at a range of $685 up to $945 per month. With speculation on the cause possibly being electrical, Lipscomb advised waiting on an official investigation from the fire marshal’s office before comments on a cause can be made.
“I’ll end up calling the State Fire Marshals in to do an investigation on it since it is a high-dollar building with a significant loss to it,” said Lipscomb. “We’ll call them in and let them determine exactly what caused it, we’ve heard some rumors about what might have caused it, but I don’t want to comment on that until I can determine for sure.”