LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Three Louisville firefighters were injured while battling an apartment fire in the Russell neighborhood Friday afternoon.
Louisville Fire Department (LFD) Captain Donovan Sims said the fire in the 2400 block of West Muhammad Ali Boulevard took roughly 100 firefighters an hour-and-a-half to extinguish. He said it was nearly a four-alarm blaze.
"It all happened so fast, I don't know what happened. Everything was fine one minute and then it seem like five minutes later the smoke was so thick you couldn't see your hand in front of your face," resident Richard Bell said.
Bell has lived in the building for a year. He and two residents immediately evacuated.
"When I realized the house was full of smoke I went to the front door to try and open the door but the doorknob was so hot I couldn't get a hold of it to open the door; that's how I burned my hand trying to open the door on the doorknob," he said.
LFD Lt. Col. Bobby Cooper said one firefighter was treated for a cut on their hand and one was treated for a cat bite. The third firefighter was injured after falling from the second floor. All three have been released from the hospital.
Sims said they rescued one occupant from the building.
"I never seen such a response in my life," neighbor Bill Edwin said. He lives next door to where the fire happened. "I heard a boom, I thought it was a wreck out here at the intersection because we had some bad ones."
But that's not what Edwin saw when he looked out the window.
"I seen smoke rolling out of the 1st and 2nd floor of the adjacent building so I ran outside to see if everyone was okay and everyone got out," he said.
A Jefferson County Public Schools spokesperson said a nearby elementary school did evacuate due to the fire, and that all students and staff are safe.
Bell said he's happy everyone made it out okay and that he's "happy [he's] still alive."
The arson unit is investigating the cause of the fire.
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