20 Residents Displaced In 3-Alarm Fire In Pikesville
PIKESVILLE, Md. (WJZ) -- A three-alarm fire rips through an apartment complex in Baltimore County. It happened at the St. Charles at Olde Court Apartments in Pikesville.
Two buildings were damaged and nearly two dozen people were displaced.
Mike Schuh has more from those who escaped.
Crews arrived to find fire in a second floor apartment and people still in the building. Several people were rescued.
"They also encountered multiple people on balconies and coming out of the building, so they helped to extricate those victims out to safety," said Capt. Richard Schenning, Baltimore County Fire Department.
The fire involved at least four units and displaced about 20 people.
Khera Elliott had just come home.
"I looked out the peephole and saw all this smoke, and I heard people yelling, 'Get out, get out. There's a fire,'" said Elliott.
The fire was right below her apartment and as strange as it might sound, she wasn't surprised.
"I saw this coming. I've been worried about this for years. Dreams, my mom too. She said for the past month she's dreamed about a fire at this place. I've been dreading it. I came from a house, I come to live at this apartment and ever since then I've felt like what if there's a fire? How do I get out? What do I do?" Elliott said.
What she did was wake her mom. They battled through thick smoke to safety.
The value of all that was lost has not yet been calculated. Elliott and her mom know exactly what was saved.
"She's been crying for an hour," Elliott said.
Schuh: "You saved your mom's life."
"Yeah, I did. Thank God," Elliott said.
Two people were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The Red Cross met with the residents who were displaced and assisted 11 families, providing shelter, food, and clothing.
The cold weather and ice complicated efforts by the fire department and salt trucks had to be called to the scene.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
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