SAFD: 49 people displaced after 2-alarm fire at West Side apartment complex

SAN ANTONIO – UPDATE: The apartment building is set to be demolished.

The San Antonio Fire Department is still trying to figure out what started the fire. 

(Previously)

A two-alarm fire at a West Side apartment complex has left a building almost completely destroyed and more than 40 people without a home.

Around noon Monday, San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said crews went to the Marbach Park Apartments in the 1800 block of Horal Drive, where they found a "working fire" in apartment building No. 5.

Hood said first responders began to evacuate residents and firefighters began to aggressively fight the fire until they were driven by a "collapse on one of the breezeways to the stairwell."

"We had to go defensive on it, (and) we have had heavy damage to at least eight of the units, but all 16 in that building are affected," Hood said.

Videos sent to KSAT.com show an apartment building fully engulfed in flames.

Firefighters were able to save a dog and a cat from the burning building. There were no reported injuries, and everyone who lived in the affected building, including pets, has been accounted for, Hood said.

Hood said 49 people have been displaced as a result of the fire.

"If this were to have happened at 3 in the morning, you could imagine the devastation as far as people sleeping, but a lot of the people were not at home or they were out," Hood said.

Hood said about 100 firefighters worked to get the fire under control and once they assess the stability of the structure, they will do a secondary search and try to save any valuables.

Joe Lopez, a resident, said he saw smoke and called 911.

"I was walking by and I smelled smoke, whatever, and I wasn't sure of anything. I turn around and see smoke coming out of the window, right across from the washateria. I went and looked in the middle and I don't see anything. So, I walk back this way and flames just came out the bedroom window and that's when I called 911."

The Red Cross, the complex's management and other organizations will assist with the displaced families, Hood said.

It is still unclear what started the fire, and arson personnel have been called to investigate, he said.