Apartment fire displaces residents, destroys roof

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By Steve Bennish, Staff Writer Updated 11:52 PM Monday, October 19, 2009

TROTWOOD — A fire Monday night, Oct. 19, that may have been caused by a man cooking food destroyed as many as 12 apartments in a complex, the roof of a building in the complex and left several residents without a place to live.

A man who was cooking in a basement apartment suffered minor burns to his hands, Trotwood Fire Chief Gene Lutz said.

He had two school-age children with him. Neither they, the other residents nor any of the firefighters were injured in the fire at the Westbrooke Village Apartments, 5533 Autumn Woods Drive, Lutz said.

No official cause has been determined, and no immediate estimate of damage was available, he said. There are several multi-story buildings in the complex.

Approximately half of the 24 units were lost in the building that burned, Lutz said, and the roof of the structure was burned away as well.

Representatives of the Red Cross were sent to the scene to assist those who were displaced, the exact number of which Lutz could not pinpoint.

One of the displaced residents was Anthony Wright, 49, who said he lost “everything I own.”

Wright said he had just come home from work when a neighbor alerted him to the fire. Wright said that on his way out of the building, he helped a woman who had just had a baby to escape from a second-floor apartment.

Firefighters from Clayton, Dayton, Englewood and Brookville assisted Trotwood in putting out the fire reported at 7:17 p.m. as a structure fire, Lutz said.

The quick moving flames that spread into the floors and walls was so intense it drove firefighters away from the structure at one point, Lutz said, noting that firefighters had to put down an estimated 400 feet of firehose to reach the nearest hydrant.

Once firefighters gained the upper hand, they used an aerial ladder truck to pour water on the building.

Stay with DaytonDailyNews.com for pictures from the scene.

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