Fire tears through Modesto apartments. ‘You could see people jumping out of the windows.’
Three people were injured jumping from second-story windows and balconies when fire spread rapidly across eight units of an apartment complex early Monday, according to the Modesto Fire Department.
The three taken by American Medical Response to hospitals suffered minor to moderate injuries, Battalion Chief Darin Jesberg said. Residents also were treated for smoke inhalation.
One dog died in the fire at the Chardonnay Ridge Apartments, 1313 Celeste Drive, just north of Memorial Medical Center, and another injured its leg in jumping from the second story.
The report of a residential structure fire came in about 4:24 a.m., Jesberg said, adding that it should have been classified as a commercial fire. There was some initial confusion about the precise location of the fire, he said, and when the first firefighters reached it, they immediately called for a second alarm.
A third alarm soon was sounded, and Modesto firefighters were joined by Ceres and Stanislaus Consolidated fire crews.
Stanislaus State student Britney Vik, who shares a ground-floor apartment with boyfriend Cuong Tran, may have been the first to become aware of the fire and call 911.
She’s not sure what woke her, but she walked into the living room, where she could see a glow through the blinds.
Looking out, Vik could see there was a fire, so immediately alerted Tran, who was showering for work. She quickly ran upstairs and began banging on the door of the apartment where the fire started. The sleeping residents didn’t know their home was burning, said Vik.
She said she was feeling panicked, so Tran told her to grab their birth certificates and passports, which helped her focus. The couple, who’ve had the apartment only two months, escaped with the important paperwork and their dog. “Everything else is replaceable,” Tran said about belongings they lost in the fire, including paddle boards and a mountain bike.
Residents were pouring into the parking lot, Vik said, and “you could see people jumping out of the windows” as others helped neighbors get out. Modesto police officers also evacuated occupants. Not all residents who jumped were hurt, Jesberg said.
Hours later, Vik and Tran’s dog sat in the shade in their car as the couple salvaged belongings from their bedroom. They planned to stay with Tran’s mother, and the American Red Cross was offering assistance to them and about 10 others displaced by the fire.
All eight units hit by the fire are uninhabitable, Jesberg said. The fire spread rapidly across the breezeway of the apartment building because some residents who fled left their doors open, he said.
The initial attack on the blaze was offensive, or interior, Jesberg said. But with the fire building rapidly, crews quickly moved to a defensive, or exterior, attack. Ladder trucks hit it with water from both ends of the building, he said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation by the Stanislaus Regional Fire Investigation Unit. No financial estimate of the damage was available Monday morning.
This story was originally published May 24, 2021 at 12:47 PM.
