Anton Wright had just unplugged an alarm clock in his bedroom late Tuesday when the outlet started to spark.
"It just exploded," said Wright, 26.
The five-alarm fire that followed at the Fountainview Village Apartments on Little Gloucester Road in Blackwood forced the evacuation of 52 residents. About a dozen spent the night at nearby Charles W. Lewis Middle School.
More than 150 firefighters responded to the blaze, which broke out shortly before 10:40 p.m. and gutted the center section of the four-story, 42-unit B "Birch" building, Camden County Fire Marshal Paul Hartstein said.
"At one point we had a collapse, and we evacuated all the firefighters," said Police Lt. Ray Evans, emergency management coordinator for Gloucester Township.
The fire was under control by 12:30 a.m., though firefighters continued to douse hot spots for several hours.
The fire did not appear to be suspicious, Hartstein said. "We're looking at accidental causes," he said.
Wright said he and his girlfriend had immediately called the apartment's maintenance about the sparking outlet but failed to reach anybody, so they dialed 911.
After the outlet sparked, Wright said, his mattress caught fire. He pushed the mattress into the shower and put that fire out, but then smoke began pouring out of the walls.
The fire spread in every direction through channels in the walls used for pipes, Blackwood Fire Chief John Vannoni said.
The sprawling apartment complex was built in the early 1970s, before modern fire codes were established, he said.
Some of the buildings "have recent modifications. They've installed fire blocks in them," Vannoni said. "I don't think this one did."
The property manager, Bill Moffett, could not be reached for comment.
Wright said his bedroom had been severely damaged by fire and the rest of the apartment devastated by water.
"Furniture, electronics - everything's gone," he said.
Several residents said the firefighters appeared to have encountered some sort of delay before getting water on the fire.
When the firefighters arrived, "it was just a little bit of smoke coming out of there," said Mark Stafford, 42, pointing to the top floor.
Stafford, who lived on the ground floor, said it had taken firefighters nearly a half-hour to begin spraying water. By then, the fire was raging.
"It should never have gotten to that point," Stafford said.
Tommy Johnson, 36, a former volunteer firefighter in Lawnside who also lived on the ground floor, agreed that "it looks like it took too long to get the water on it."
Vannoni said that there had been no delay, but that "for people standing there watching the fire burn, it does seem like an awful long time."
Distributed by the Associated Press
