Nearly two dozen residents in D.C.’s Eckington neighborhood are without a home after a massive fire engulfed an apartment building in Northeast overnight Monday, authorities said. The flames also damaged nearby homes.
Firefighters were called to an apartment fire in the 300 block of Seaton Place NE just after midnight, D.C. Fire and EMS said. When fire crews arrived, heavy orange flames were shooting from the roof and both levels of the building, fire fighters said.
Those strong flames traveled from the building across an alley about 10 Ft. away to neighboring row homes.
Thern Hill-El who lives next door to the building took cellphone video of the fire from his window. The video captures the moments the fire jumped from the alley to a car.
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"Man, somebody better put some water on that car!” Hill-El can be heard saying.
He said "the inferno was hot enough" to melt the side of the house and metal like the fence and car.
"Reinforcement steel, imagine that just dripping like wax, okay. And they’re trying to get through the fence and they’re cutting the wood down so they can get through, so they can get to the fire itself," Hill-El said.
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Resident Taylor Warpool was lucky. Her unit on the very end of the building wasn't damaged. She said she was sleeping when the fire broke out and someone banged on her door.
"We don't know who it is, but somebody came into our building, like got into our building and started banging on people’s doors to get us awake," Warpool said.
All of the apartment's residents were able to evacuate. No one was injured in the fire, officials said.
In total, 17 people and two dogs were displaced by the fire, authorities said. The Red Cross is helping with housing and other necessities.
After the fire was extinguished, photos show the building with smashed windows. 10 units were gutted and filled with charred debris.
The back of the apartment complex has blackened wood and singed framing where units used to be. The flames scorched the car and left a trail of black smoke in the back of the row homes.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
This is a developing story. Stay with News4 for updates.
