20 Residents Rescued from Balconies, 5 Injured, After Fire Rips Through Senior Apartment Complex in Orange



Five people were injured – and firefighters rescued between 15 and 20 people who were trapped on balconies – when a fire broke out at a senior housing facility in Orange, officials reported.

A fire ripped through a senior apartment complex on Sunday, Oct. 9, 2016. (Credit: Orange City Fire Department)

A fire ripped through a senior apartment complex on Sunday, Oct. 9, 2016.
(Credit: Orange City Fire Department)

The fire was reported about 12:52 p.m. at The Palmyra, a senior apartment complex, located at 301 S. Glassell St. Responding firefighters found heavy smoke coming from a second floor unit, an active fire in a hallway and several people trapped on balconies, Capt. Casey Fieldhouse of the Orange City Fire Department reported.

Firefighters attacked the fire quickly, Fieldhouse said, and deployed several ladders to rescue between 15 and 20 people from their balconies.

Five people were treated for mild smoke inhalation, and three of those residents were taken to a local hospital in mild conditions, Fieldhouse said.

The blaze was knocked down in 20 minutes, and fully extinguished in an hour.

Seventy residents were displaced by the fire, Fieldhouse said.

The fire caused heave damage to an upstairs unit and the entire upstairs hallway. Two additional units sustained moderate smoke damage and the first floor was damaged by a significant amount of water, officials said.

More than 100 firefighters from the Orange, Anaheim, Garden Grove, Fullerton and Huntington Beach fire departments responded to the five-alarm fire, as well as firefighters from the Orange County Fire Authority.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

No other information was released.

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