Neighbors Assist Evacuation in Tenn. Apartment Fire

June 29--Early Thursday Isaac Winfield arrived home at his apartment in North Memphis and went to investigate a noise he heard next door. He found his neighbor's apartment on fire, and two people trapped inside without keys.

"I heard some noise like fighting next door, I went over to see what was going on and I saw him (his neighbor's visitor) trying to kick the door down," Winfield, 42, said.

"I pulled on it and helped him get it open. The whole living room was blazing."

After he helped the man and woman get out, he and his family members began going door to door, waking up the people in the South Manor apartments until everyone got out.

Ronald Logan, 34, Winfield's cousin, said he was going to sleep when he heard about the fire.

"Everybody just started running and started knocking on people's doors," said Logan. "I was kicking on people's doors to wake them up and get them out of the building."

The Memphis Fire Department was dispatched to the 700 block of Decatur Street at 12:58 a.m., arrived at 1:04, and had the fire out 37 minutes later.

In that time span, Winfield's possessions were reduced to two suitcases, one medium laundry basket and one small basket.

He sang "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" as he assessed the damage done to the apartment he lived in for seven years and zipped up his luggage.

"It looks bad, but it could've been a lot worse," he said nearly eight hours after the fire, as debris blew in the sultry breeze. "It's the wrong time of year for this, It's too hot."

The fire started on the second floor of the building. Michael Adams, a downstairs tenant, said his neighbors woke him up.

"I peeked outside and saw everybody outside yelling, 'Get up! Get up! It's a fire,' while they were beating on my door," Adams said.

He got three of his children out then ran back into his apartment after noticing his 9-year-old daughter was not with them in the parking lot.

"It was instinct. I was just like, 'I'm going back in the house and getting my baby,' and that's just life."

Adams, 39, said he found her wrapped in blankets asleep as smoke was coming in through the air conditioning unit.

Lt. Wayne Cooke, a spokesman for the Memphis Fire Department, said the blaze was sparked by a malfunctioning air conditioner. No injuries were reported.

The blaze left more than 60 people without homes. They received assistance from the American Red Cross and Whitten Memorial Baptist Church.

Logan planned to go to the shelter at the church and Adams said he wasn't sure where he would take his family..

"I'm just trying to get my stuff before the night crawlers come," Adams said.

Winfield is unemployed and was not sure what he would do.

"I don't have a plan right now," he said. "I'm going to take it one day at a time, but the good Lord has me."

Copyright 2012 - The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.