SAN ANTONIO – A massive fire has destroyed a North Side apartment building, displacing roughly a dozen residents on the city’s North Side early Friday morning, the San Antonio Fire Department said.
The fire was called in just before 3 a.m. at the Lincoln Village Apartments in the 1700 block of Jackson Keller Road, not far from West Avenue and Loop 410.
Firefighters said they when they arrived, they found massive flames on the roof of the building.
“When we first got here, we had fire completely through the roof of the entire building,” Joe Arrington, a public information officer with the San Antonio Fire Department, said. “We were behind the eight ball right when we arrived.”
The SAFD said close to a dozen people were evacuated from the building. Sixteen units were affected by the flames. Many neighbors had knocked on doors, trying to make sure everyone got out safely, fire officials said.
“Our biggest concern was the fire spreading from this building to the neighboring structure. We were able to get in there, and keep that from happening by utilizing our ladder trucks and large hoses on the ground,” Arrington said.
The SAFD said they were fortunate that many of the units in the building were vacant. A woman who lives in the building, however, was concerned about her missing cat.
Arrington said fire crews working their way through the building hitting hot spots ultimately found the woman’s cat behind a television set, soaked, but alive and well.
According to the San Antonio Fire Department website, as many as 29 units answered the call. No injuries were reported.
The fire was one of four structure fires the fire department had to work between the hours of 1:30 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Friday. The apartment fire was the biggest, Arrington said.