June 07--DENNIS PORT -- He heard the screams first, then the flicker in the window across the lawn.
Bolting from bed, Robert Johnson rushed outside in his boxer shorts about 2:30 a.m. Friday to yank out a window in the Seabreeze Condominiums and pull a woman in a wheelchair to safety.
"I pulled out the window frame, and she came with it," said Johnson, 60, who has lived at the complex for three years. "I just did what I thought I should do."
As the woman crawled away, Johnson said he battled the fire, shouting up to sleeping residents as his son passed him one extinguisher after another from hallways in the Center Street complex.
Dennis police officers and firefighters responded within minutes to find some residents jumping from the second floor, others lying on the ground in the parking lot. Seeing the smoke billowing up, firefighters immediately raised the fire to a second alarm, then a third to call for more fire companies and ambulances.
It was declared a mass-casualty incident.
The first crews inside the building were forced out by heavy fire, said Assistant Fire Chief John Donlan. Meanwhile, paramedics treated multiple residents for smoke inhalation or injuries they suffered leaping to safety.
"The entire back of the building was in flames and spread to the roof," Donlan said in a prepared statement.
If not for Johnson, the fire could have cost lives, said property manager Larry Perry. Instead, about a dozen people were injured, including a Dennis firefighter and two police officers. Dennis police had initially said a Brewster firefighter was among the 11 taken to the hospital, but he was treated for smoke inhalation at the scene, said Dennis Fire Chief Mark Dellner.
Of those hurt, two were taken to a Boston hospital with more severe injuries, he said. One of the two was a woman who suffered broken bones, among other injuries, after jumping from the second floor, Dellner said.
"I'm just glad everyone is OK," Perry said. "The fire was so hot that the windows were popping out like someone had a shotgun."
Donlan said 11 people were taken to Cape Cod Hospital, and another six drove themselves.
The entire two-story building was evacuated, and several units are considered uninhabitable, said Dellner. The building has 16 units according to the management website.
Dellner said 33 people were displaced, but some were able to stay with family or friends. The American Red Cross is helping 29 residents find shelter in hotels, said Hilary Greene, executive director of the Cape and Islands chapter.
"Right now, we're assisting them with hotel accommodations for a couple nights," she said. "We're giving them food, clothing, shoes and lodging."
Dellner said he believes the fire was accidental and started in the apartment where the woman in a wheelchair lives, but he could not comment on the exact cause until officials speak with more witnesses. He hopes to confirm the cause of the fire today.
"It looks like it was an accidental fire for sure," he said.
As police officers and firefighters surveyed the scorched apartments Friday morning, about a half dozen red fire extinguishers littered the ground outside. Johnson had banged the extinguishers against the walls as he shouted to wake up his neighbors and sprayed down the fire.
Johnson's attempts to beat down the blaze were working for "a little bit," but eventually he ran out of extinguishers and the fire took off.
"I tried, but I just couldn't put it out," he said.
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