Fire in east Fort Worth damages 16 apartments, displaces 20 tenants, officials say
.jpg "Fort Worth firefighters respond to a fire at an apartment complex in the 9000 block of Sunridge Circle on Thursday morning. The fire heavily damaged four units and left 20 tenants displaced, according to the fire department.")
A fire spread across a two-story apartment building in east Fort Worth early Thursday morning amid strong gusts of wind, damaging 16 units and displacing 20 people, the fire department said.
No one was injured in the incident, and tenants were able to escape on their own, according to Mike Drivdahl, a department spokesman.
Firefighters were dispatched to the fire in the 9000 block of Sun Ridge Circle around 6 a.m. They encountered flames on the first and second floors that were moving fast, beginning to make their way into the attic, Drivdahl said over the phone on Thursday. The incident commander elevated the fire to a second alarm, he said, bringing in additional fire trucks and firefighters.
The noticeable wind in the air “contributed to the rapid acceleration of this fire,” Drivdahl said. Wind gusts of up to 25 mph were possible Thursday, according to the National Weather Service in Fort Worth.
Firefighters had the blaze under control within 30 minutes, Drivdahl said. They continued spraying water onto hot spots for more than an hour, and sometime around 9 a.m. were able to clear the scene.
The fire department has yet to confirm that working smoke detectors helped tenants safely escape, but Drivdahl said he would assume that was the case.
“This weekend is daylight saving’s, and we strongly encourage everybody that if you can change your clocks, you can change your smoke detector batteries,” Drivdahl said. “Obviously at 6 o’clock in the morning the majority of the people in that apartment were probably asleep. But they were all able to escape.”
A total of 16 units in the apartment building were impacted by the incident, with four suffering heavy fire damage, eight suffering medium smoke and water damage and four more suffering minor damage, Drivdahl said. Photos tweeted out by the department show multiple second-story apartments charred black, with holes in the roof.
The American Red Cross was notified to assist tenants, according to Drivdahl, who wasn’t sure if the agency was coming in person or offering virtual help.
The cause of the fire is under investigation by the fire department.
Drivdahl noted that, at this time, there’s no evidence of intent to start a fire.
This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 9:32 AM.
