KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Fire wrecked part of a Northland apartment building Saturday night and one resident is amazed no one suffered serious injuries.
"You look at that and you think how did anybody survive," Danny McBee said.
McBee lives in the Vivion Oaks apartment complex in the 5000 block of North Oak Trafficway and was there when the fire started.
"We didn’t think about anything else but pounding those doors," he said. "Me and other people and getting them to safety."
KCMO firefighters got to the complex and saw smoke and fire coming from a two-story apartment building.
"I was scared there was children and everything else and immediately there was two other guys and me, we went inside the apartments to pound the doors, trying to wake people up," McBee said Saturday night to KSHB 41 reporter Rachel Henderson. "One thing is gratifying, is that I just had a lady tell me, 'Thank you,' because she was asleep. This is not to pat myself on the back, but we all just got to look out for each other."
Following an initial attack on the fire, crews evacuated the building and "went to a defensive posture using three aerial master streams," according to Kansas City, Missouri, Fire Department spokesperson Michael Hopkins.
Fire crews were able to go back into the building later and the fire was officially under control by 8:58 p.m.
The fire, whose cause was accidental, damaged the east end of one of the buildings in the complex. Residents of 12 apartments were displaced in the fire, according to Hopkins.
Hopkins said the building had 18 units broken into three sections with six units in each section.
One person suffered minor smoke inhalation and was taken to a hospital for treatment.
McBee said he is sad for what familes lost, especially before the holidays.
"That's what makes me sad is when I see pictures of children and crayons making a picture," he said. On the other side you will see some pictures up in the window, that's what's sad," McBee said
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