6 Hurt As Belmont Fire Victims Try To Jump To Safety
BELMONT (CBS 5 / KCBS / AP / BCN) -- Fire crews were investigating the cause of an apartment fire in Belmont early Tuesday that injured six people and displaced dozens of other residents.
Some of the injured residents, including a pregnant woman, jumped out of their windows to escape the two-alarm blaze, which occured around 3 a.m. at 2515 Carlmont Drive.
Firefighters also rescued 13 other people from the balconies of various
apartments, Belmont-San Carlos Fire Chief Doug Fry said.
While all six of the injured were hospitalized, authorities said most suffered from smoke inhalation and none of the injuries were considered life threatening.
KCBS' Margie Shafer Reports:
The entire building, comprised of 23 units, "is not habitable at this time," said Fry, who told residents that they wouldn't be able to return for at least 60 days.
In all, up to 40 residents displaced by the fire were evacuated to a nearby senior center, according to the American Red Cross.
There were several pets in the building "ranging from cats, dogs, pythons" and all but one cat from the unit where the fire started was found safe, Fry said.
The fire, which took about 40 minutes to extinguish, caused about $950,000 in damage, including $750,000 to the structure of the building and about $200,000 to its contents, according to fire officials.
(© 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press and Bay City News contributed to this report.)
