Residents escape blaze in building

Caitlin Hudgins

Friday, July 2, 2004 | 9:13 a.m.

A two-alarm fire at an apartment building near Eastern Avenue and Bonanza Road displaced 21 residents Thursday morning.

Multiple calls came in to Las Vegas Fire & Rescue just after 9:30 a.m. reporting that the complex at 1308 N. 22nd St. had caught fire, spokesman Tim Szymanski said.

By the time 55 firefighters arrived on the scene, flames had started billowing out of the building's windows, he said. The blaze was extinguished in about 10 minutes.

The fire started in a downstairs apartment, where a mother and her 4-year-old son had been sleeping in a bedroom.

"She awoke to the smell of smoke, found the (other) bedroom on fire and got her son out of there," Szymanski said.

The cause of the fire is undetermined and under investigation.

No fire personnel were injured, but two of the residents living in the building's four units suffered minor injuries, Szymanski said.

One man had to be escorted by a firefighter from his second-floor apartment down the stairs, which were blocked by flames. He was treated on the scene for slight smoke inhalation and was released when he refused hospital care.

Another man attempted to descend a different set of stairs that was engulfed by fire but was forced to jump to the ground from the balcony. He also was treated at the scene for a sprained ankle.

The two-story, wood-framed stucco building suffered extensive damage amounting to about $50,000, Szymanski said.

"The downstairs apartment is completely gutted, and the upstairs apartments have heat and smoke damage," he said.