Media Writing Lab #1

Serious fire on Main Street leaves sixteen families without homes

By Jonathan Graham
Staff Writer

An apartment building fire at 123 South Main Street on Monday injured two firefighters and left more than 40 people without homes.

The 4-alarm fire, still under investigation by the Denton Fire Department, damaged ten apartment units and destroyed six. The department believes that a child playing with matches may have been responsible for starting the fire.

“This was really quite a serious fire,” said Denton Fire Department spokeswoman Bettye Jablonski in a press conference held Monday afternoon.

According the residents who witnessed the fire, the victims knocked on doors to check that no one was left in the building during the fire. One woman, who was trying to escape the building, dropped her baby from the second floor balcony to someone on the ground floor. The baby, named Angel, was caught safely and unharmed.

No residents were injured in the fire, but two firefighters received minor injuries when a brick wall fell on top of them. One has only cuts and bruises on their arms and hands, and the other has a broken arm. Both were treated at the scene, but the firefighter with the broken arm was taken to Denton Regional Medical Center afterwards, and will be held overnight.

The Red Cross is supporting the sixteen displaced families right now with food, clothing, and household items, and the landlord of the apartment complex is providing vacant apartments for them.