Dallas Residents Help Each Other Escape Fire
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Emergency crews in Dallas raced to an apartment fire in the northeast part of the city, but when they arrived on the scene, residents were already helping each other escape from the flames. The incident happened shortly before midnight on Tuesday at the Falls at High Point Apartments, located in the 9000 block of Markville Drive.
Nobody was injured during the fire because apartment residents did not hesitate to take action and help out their neighbors. Firefighters arrived at the fire to find flames shooting through the roof of the three-story apartment building. Since no residents were left inside the buring building, emergency crews were able to get to work quickly.
In the end, the damage was contained to just a few apartment units on the building's third floor. The American Red Cross is now assisting the nine families (a total of 24 people) who were displaced.
Authorities credit the apartment residents for self-evacuating – banging on the doors and getting others out of the building – saying that this made their job easier and lessened the amount that the four-alarm fire could spread. "Saw the commotion and I just stopped and asked had anybody went upstairs, because I saw lights on," said resident Bradley Jones. "I went up to the second and third floors and knocked on doors, and people were still in there. Got everybody to came out safely."
Resident Sherrie Hawkins said, "I ran over here when I saw the flames on top of the thing. We ran over here and just started beating on doors and everything, trying to get everyone out."
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, however, crews do know that it started on the building's top floor, where the damage was the greatest.
