Sunday, May. 10, 2009

Couple rescued from burning apartment

Columbia firefighters dashed through heavy smoke Sunday morning to rescue a man and woman trapped on the second floor of an apartment building on Ames Road.

The couple, two of nine people displaced by the early-morning fire at Apartment Building No. 16 at 5779 Ames Road, were taken to Palmetto Health Richland for emergency treatment for smoke inhalation, Deputy Fire Chief Aubrey Jenkins said Sunday evening.

Jenkins said the fire started in the bedroom of a vacant first floor unit shortly after midnight.

“No one should have been in there,” Jenkins said, adding the cause is under investigation.

Flames and heavy smoke kept the couple trapped in an upstairs apartment, he said. One group of firefighters rescued the couple as another group attacked the fire, he said.

All three fire stations on North Main Street sent units to the fire, Jenkins said. He estimated damage to be about $40,000.

-- John Monk

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