Family temporarily displaced after apartment fire

UPDATE 9/21/23 @ 4 p.m.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) - A family of five will be without a place to stay for the time being as fire investigators try to figure out what led to a fire in an upstairs apartment bedroom.

Charleston fire crews were dispatched around 9:45 Thursday morning to the Hillcrest Village Apartments on a report of black smoke coming out of the apartment with no one answering the door.

The commotion served as a chaotic start to the morning for apartment residents including Paylon Hicks.

“I was laying in my bed asleep and the next thing I knew my dad woke me up running into my room yelling the apartment next door was on fire and we came running down the stairs, the cat went running up the stairs so we had to scoop it up real quick,” he described. “We walked outside and the glass was broken next door over.”

Charleston fire crews arrived within minutes of the first call finding flames at the second-floor bedroom window. No people who lived in the apartment were home at the time, but two dogs needed to be rescued.

“The extent just really to the room, the fire damage to the bedroom, of course, there’s a lot of smoke and water damage to the whole complex, even into the neighboring apartments,” Assistant Charleston Fire Chief Trevor Dysart said. “There was very little smoke damage, very little water damage in the end in each of those side apartments.”

The American Red Cross was brought in to help the family find a temporary place to stay.

Fire officials said no one was hurt and working smoke alarms were found in the building.

ORIGINAL STORY

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) - Fire crews from the Charleston Fire Department are on the scene of a fire on Hillcrest Drive.

Dispatchers at Metro 911 say the call came in just after 9:30 a.m.

The apartment building is in the 1000 block on Hillcrest Drive. At this time, no injuries have been reported.

Stay with WSAZ for the latest on this developing story.

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