Virginia Firefighters Control 3-Alarmer

Fire raged through a Norfolk apartment building Tuesday morning. Fortunately, all 30 people who lived there got out safely.

The six unit building at 421 West 31st Street in Park Place, will likely have to be torn down. The fire started on the first floor, in unit number one, just after 4:00 in the morning. Sheila Gilchrist lives in unit number four, with her three children. I asked her what woke her up. "God, spirit, woke me up and I jumped. I ran through my house. I opened the door and looked and the downstairs was on fire." Gilchrist said she started screaming to wake up her 10-year-old son and two daughters, age 6 and 15. Schehera heard her mother and knew this was serious. "I was scared, I hesitated a bit, but then I grabbed my little sister and little brother and we left out." Fire crews arrived moments later. First they went to each unit looking for residents. Finding no one inside they concentrated on battling the flames. By 4:45 they thought they had the fire under control and were fighting it from inside and outside. But then a short time later fire flared up in the walls and shot straight up through the roof. Noah Cunningham lives right next door at 417 West 31st Street. He could only watch as fire crews doused his home continuously trying to keep the flames away. "So far the siding is melted off the side of my house, a couple of windows broken, the blinds are melted on the inside. Right now I'm just hoping they can save my house." Crews did manage to save Cunningham's home and the multi-family unit on the far side of the burned out apartment building. Investigators have not determined what caused the fire.