UPDATE: Apartments on Anita Court in Columbia catch fire, 50 percent of building total loss
UPDATE 6/12: A press release revealed that Assistant Fire Marshal Shawn McGruder and Assistant Fire Marshal Jim Pasley determined the fire originated on a front deck on the lower level of the apartment building.
According to the press release, the cause of the fire is improperly discarded smoking materials.
Fifty percent of the apartment building is considered a total loss.
UPDATE 6/11: ABC 17 News was told firefighters have had to take multiple breaks due to the heat. At least one of them was treated for heat exhaustion.
Asst. Fire Chief Brad Fraizer with the Columbia Fire Dept. also said one occupant was injured while leaving the building.
ABC 17 spoke with Dennis Morre Jr., a man who was planning to move out of his apartment on the bottom floor of the building on Thursday. “I just kind of thank God that I wasn’t there,” said Morre.
The property manager of the building is looking for housing for those who were displaced by the fire.
ORIGINAL STORY: ABC 17 crews are on scene at an apartment fire on Anita Ct.
Multiple emergency crews are on scene and working to put out the fire.
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/AlyssaABC17/status/1006257513266851842″,”author_name”:”Alyssa Toomey”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/AlyssaABC17″,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Multiple fire crews and police here as well &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/abc17news?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#abc17news&#lt;/a&#gt; &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/UxHEiVSHDz”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/UxHEiVSHDz&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Alyssa Toomey (@AlyssaABC17) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/AlyssaABC17/status/1006257513266851842?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;June 11, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
The fire has already caused severe structural damage to the building, but there’s no word on injuries. Anita Ct. is completely blocked off.
This is a developing story. ABC 17 will update this story with the latest details.
