East Point apartment fire: one dead, many displaced

Fires and explosions make news across the United States on a daily basis. Set a Google alert for the term “apartment fire” or “house fire,” and you will be inundated with updates.

Here are two headlines from events Tuesday:

One dead in East Point apartment fire

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A man was found dead and several families were displaced after an East Point apartment fire in suburban Atlanta.

The fire broke out about 9:50 p.m. in a complex on Vesta Avenue just off Main Street.

The friend of a disabled man trapped by the apartment complex fire told Channel 2’s Audrey Washington he is stunned by the loss. The victim has not been identified.

“I just think it’s a terrible thing to happen,” Johnny Ludlum said. “He didn’t have any money. All his disability went to having a place to stay.”

East Point firefighters said that when they arrived they found flames shooting from the bottom floor of the building.

Firefighters are looking into what started the fire, but the building’s owner said officials told her the fire started where the victim lived.

About 30 percent of the building was damaged in the blaze, officials said.

The Red Cross is assisting six families displaced by the fire with lodging and other emergency essentials, according to the organization.

Two injured in Louisville house fire

From WAVE 3 News, Louisville: Two people escaped a massive house fire in the Saint Joseph neighborhood of Louisville, one with critical injuries.

The fire started around 4:50 p.m., in the 500 block of Lilly Avenue, MetroSafe said. That’s off Crittenden Drive near Eastern Parkway.

A video from a WAVE 3 News viewer showed massive flames shooting from the house. Witnesses said they heard a series of explosions, the first several of which shook the ground, as the house caught fire.

Two people escaped from the home, Louisville Fire Department assistant chief Terence Delaney said. They were helped across the street by passersby.

Chris Freudenberger said he spotted the smoke from the fire when he was driving around the corner. He stopped to help when he saw a woman outside the home who was on fire.

“At that point I ran into the front yard, on the front porch,” Freudenberger said. “There were two gentlemen there who were trying to move her but couldn’t, so I got there, we helped move her off the porch, actually took the blanket and doused out the fire, got her to a certain point in the front yard, the power line had fallen to the ground there.”

Freudenberger said that’s when he started to hear loud explosions.

“Oxygen tanks in the house started exploding like 10-12, it seemed like, so we then picked her up and brought her onto the sidewalk over here,” Freudenberger said. “They kept exploding. We knew we needed to get her further away from the house so we took her across the street. Another gentlemen walked up and helped us get her across the street and we were just sitting there waiting for EMS.”

One person was rushed to University Hospital with critical injuries. The other person is expected to be OK.

It took 25 firefighters to get the flames under control. Delaney said the house is a total loss.

The homes on either side of where the fire started also were damaged.

Delaney said he would not speculate on reports of explosions. He said investigators do not know the cause of the fire yet.