New Orleans Firefighters Tackle Five-Alarm Blaze

March 25, 2019
Four people were rescued from the fire, which is believed to have started in a small house before spreading to at least one nearby apartment building Monday.

New Orleans firefighters were battling a five-alarm fire in Central City in which four people were rescued Monday morning.

The blaze at Baronne and Felicity streets was classified as five alarms as of 6:25 a.m., the New Orleans Fire Department said. The fire was first reported at 5:30 a.m. and spread through at least two apartment buildings on Baronne Street. Flames and billowing smoke could still be seen by 8:15 a.m.

Four people were rescued from the fire, according to our news partners at WVUE Fox 8 News.

Dozens of firefighters were on the scene at a row of two-story residential buildings in the 1800 block of Baronne Street. A large hose and a crane directed water onto a spot between two of the houses.

Jami Comeaux, property manager for one of the residential buildings that caught on fire, said she woke around 5 a.m. to a crackling sound and then saw flames out of her window.

Comeaux grabbed her keys and computer and left her apartment and began banging on other apartment doors to warn others, she said. The building has five apartments.

A couple in one apartment and a man in a second apartment came outside. Another tenant, a woman, wasn’t home and firefighters rescued her dog, she said.

Comeaux said she believes the first began at an abandoned camelback home next door. The house has been vacant, although she has seen a man staying there recently, she said.

Kamal Packer, 28, said his English bulldog, Buster, woke him by running through his apartment, which is in the building next to the abandoned camelback home.

Packer said he went to his living room window, pulled back the curtains and saw the house on fire. He, too, banged on the walls of his neighbors’ apartments, to make sure everyone was out.

“I panicked,” Packer said. “I didn’t even think to get anything out but my cellphone.”

Roads are closed in the area, including Baronne from Felicity Street to Jackson Avenue. Parts of Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, Felicity Street, Carondelet Street and Josephine Street also are closed. The city asked people to avoid the area and use alternative routes.

There was no immediate word about the cause of the fire.

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