SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio arson investigators are looking into the cause of a fire that trapped a disabled man inside his town home.
The fire broke out around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday inside a second-floor bedroom of the town home on Starcrest Drive near Nacogdoches Road.
The apartment complex is just down the street from a fire station, so firefighters arrived within seconds, according to a battalion chief.
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"We did have a resident that was visible from a second-story window. We did assist in removing that individual," said Woody Woodward, a public information officer for the San Antonio Fire Department.
A firefighter scaled a ladder and assisted the man out of a second-floor window.
Two other relatives who live in the town home had already escaped on their own.
"No injuries, amazingly. They will not be transported to a hospital," Woodward said.
More than half-dozen other people who live in the building left their homes as a precaution.
It appeared for a while that their homes might be without electricity due to the fire and would need assistance in finding another place to stay. But they later were allowed back into their homes.
"The good news is it did not spread to the other apartments. Mostly smoke and water damage (to the home where it originated)," Woodward said.
Firefighters contained the damage to only one room of the affected town home. They said the fact that the residents closed their bedroom doors may have kept the fire from spreading, Woodward said.