FIRE HITS ELYRIA APARTMENTS

WOMAN JUMPS FROM 3rd FLOOR BALCONY

Call Time: 4:20 a.m. Wednesday April 15, 2009
Elyria – An early morning fire in Elyria has left several apartments destroyed and sent one woman to the hospital after she had to jump off of her 3rd floor balcony.Firefighters from Elyria were able to bring the blaze under control in under an hour.

Assistant Chief Tim Mitchell of the Elyria Fire Department said the fire started in a ground level apartment in the southeast corner of the building and then spread up to through the next two floors.

Mitchell said that the tenant in the fire apartment told him that they were sleeping and woke up to the smell of smoke. "They got out of bed and went to turn on a fan, then they said they turned and saw the apartment filling up with flames so they left the apartment right away."

Ashley Auble lives in the building that caught fire - her apartment sits right next to the fire apartment. Auble said that she awoke to her dog barking around 4:20 a.m., thinking the dog was just barking to be annoying she was about ready to scold her pet - but then she began hearing smoke alarms sounding. "When I heard the alarms I got out of bed to see what was going on and then I could hear people talking outside of my window. When I opened the window they were telling me that my building was on fire."

Auble then ran to her door but before opening it she paused - "I thought I better feel it to see fi it was hot and it was so I turned around and decided to go out through the window. I remember hearing before that you shouldn’t open a door if it is hot so I got my dog out then I crawled through the window."

When Auble got outside she was met by other tenants who had also fled their apartments. "There was still one woman trapped on her 3rd floor balcony and we kept telling her that she needed to get out because the fire was getting worse - smoke was everywhere."

With neighbors standing below the woman made her way from the 3rd floor balcony to the one directly below here. Auble said the woman then stumbled and fell to the ground. "We all ran to her side to help and moved her away from the building, that’s when the Firemen came and they started taking car of her and they called for an ambulance right away."

Mitchell said that although he was not sure on the condition of the woman he did say that she had recently had knee surgery.

Paramedics from LifeCare treated and transported the woman to Elyria Memorial Hospital.

The Lorain County Chapter of the American Red Cross was called to the scene to assist the families that have been displaced due to the fire and smoke damage.

Mitchell said that investigators from the Department were on hand to begin the investigation.

Updated: 8:21 p.m. Austin, Texas time

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