A kitchen fire in an Ellet high-rise Tuesday night was caught quickly -- giving other residents a good scare but limiting the damage.
The fire broke out in asecond-floor condominium at 2331 E. Market St. just after 8 p.m. Nearly all of the building's 158 tenants, most of whom are senior citizens, fled within minutes and no one was injured.
Firefighters arrived on the scene within six minutes and spent all of five minutes extinguishing the blaze.
Fire Capt. Larry Whytsell said the fire was contained to the kitchen area of the second-floor unit. The tenant, Roger Briggs, wasn't home at the time.
Damage was estimated at $25,000 -- $20,000 for the building and $5,000 for the contents.
``I'm glad it wasn't any worse. It's probably one of the safest buildings in Akron, all concrete,'' Whytsell said about the 38-year-old building.
Briggs said he had gone to work and had been gone for about 45 minutes before he received a call from a neighbor saying his condo was on fire.
``I ran home. I work in Brimfield. I was here in 15 minutes,'' he said, shifting through a pile of burned material pulled out of the complex by the firefighters. ``Everything was pretty much destroyed. They think the fire was caused by the coffee maker.''
Pauline Jacob lives next door to Briggs and called the Fire Department after smelling smoke.
``When I came out, there was smoke all around the door,'' Jacob said. ``I banged on the door and called my neighbor's name, but didn't get an answer. I called another neighbor, than dialed 911.''
Another resident, Mark Herchenroether, said he came out of his sixth-floor apartment and knew something was wrong.
``If it had happened in the middle of the night it would have been a disaster,'' Herchenroether said. ``When I opened the door, I saw nothing but smoke. I went and got a guy in a wheelchair off my floor and got him out through the basement and garage.''
