Early Friday morning, a devastating blaze swept through an apartment complex on Indianapolis' west side, leaving four individuals with injuries and over a dozen without homes as reported by WIBC. The Wayne Township Fire Department was summoned to the fiery scene in the 5700 block of Port Au Prince Street around 3 a.m., where they encountered flames furiously bursting from the rear of a unit and furiously clawing their way into the attic space above.
Officers on the scene had been alerted to the potential of residents trapped inside as the fire intensified, requiring a two-alarm response and Eric Banister, a captain with the Wayne Township Fire Department, mentioned “we received multiple reports of entrapment,” and added, “Lots of searches were conducted, finding no people inside, so everybody self-evacuated,” in a statement obtained by FOX59. Some affected residents had to make the perilous decision to jump from the second story to avoid the conflagration.
In total, twelve apartments were compromised, leading to the displacement of an estimated 14 to 16 individuals, with immediate shutoffs of power and utilities to the building, as found in WIBC's coverage. The injurious toll included two adults and two children one adult and one child were quickly transported to hospital care, with two more receiving on-the-spot treatment at the distressing scene.
Details surrounding the conditions of those admitted to the hospital were sparse; however, Banister shared that the injured parties were communicative with responders before their departure, as WTHR reported. Fortunately, no fatalities have been reported and no firefighters sustained injuries in the course of battling the blaze, the cause of which remains under investigation.
