Fire evacuees taken to Churchill High School

Elderly residents rescued from fatal apartment fire

SAN ANTONIO – Elderly residents rescued from a fatal apartment fire huddled in an evacuation center at Churchill High School Sunday.

Fire crews from Castle Hills and San Antonio set up the evacuation facility after a three-alarm fire rolled through the Wedgewood retirement community around 6 a.m.

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Firefighters in ladder trucks rescued 75 residents from the burning building.

Hundreds more escaped the fire on their own, but San Antonio fire chief Charles Hood says five people were not able to get out and died.

One person is hospitalized in critical condition, and two more are serious.

Police and firefighters placed elderly residents from the high-rise apartment on VIA buses for transport to the evacuation center.

VIA says buses took 120 people from the fire scene to Churchill High School.

It is not known how many remain at that evacuation center.

The cause of the fatal fire in now under investigation.