Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies

Two lose apartments to fire

Residents were evacuated from more than a dozen homes at the Imperial Palms complex in the city.

LARGO - Two people were displaced from their apartments Monday after an early morning fire.

A resident of Imperial Palms apartments called 911 about 3:15 a.m. Monday to report that a sofa in her living room was on fire, said Deputy Chief Jeff Bullock of the Largo Fire Department.

The woman got out of her unit at 4709 Imperial Palms Drive safely.

Firefighters pulled up to the scene five minutes later and saw smoke pouring from the apartment. Flames poked out of a back window and curled up toward the roof, Bullock said.

Firefighters evacuated 16 other apartments and made their way into the unit that was on fire. They extinguished the blaze within 10 minutes, preventing it from spreading into the roof or to other units, Bullock said.

However, another unit was deemed uninhabitable because of smoke damage. The unit that caught fire was gutted and destroyed. Damage was estimated at about $80,000, Bullock said.

A cause of the fire had not been determined by Monday afternoon, but Bullock said there were no indications it was suspicious.

Bullock said a single woman occupied the apartment that caught fire. A single resident also occupied the other damaged unit. The American Red Cross was summoned to help those people, but Bullock wasn't sure where they were staying Monday night.

Bullock could not confirm the names of the displaced residents. A phone message left with the apartment complex was not returned.

Bullock said fire crews ventilated about a dozen units that had some smoke seep into them.