31 pieces of equipment responded to the scene at Woodbridge Apartments around 2 pm Sunday, along with 80-90 firefighters, paramedics and police. Flames engulfed the building and quickly spread. All residents living there made it out, but several pets died. One fireman also suffered minor injuries to his shoulder.
Ryan Mullins watched his apartment and everything in it, go up in flames. But when the fire started, the young man wasn't concerned about his stuff. He was worried about his neighbors.
Mullins said, "We came out of my apartment and I smelled smoke. It smelled like plastic burning, so I went down there, and sure enough the apartment was on fire. So I did what anybody would do; started knocking on doors, trying to get everybody out."
Ryan and his buddies warned everyone in the building, and then stood outside and watched in horror.
Mullins' friend James Gordon said, "The girl that lived above where the fire started...she saw the fire and went bezerk, because she had no renters insurance and all she could think about was losing her stuff and not knowing what to do."
The fire started in a lower-level unit. Firefighters don't know the cause yet, but they do know that the flames spread quickly.
"It knocked me to my knees. The smoke will take your breath away," said Mullins' friend Dwight Burgett.
By the time the flames were gone, all that was left of this building was a charred shell. And 25 residents found themselves faced with the challenge of starting over. Some, including Ryan Mullins, were more fortunate than others.
"Yeah, I just got renters insurance last month," he said.
