Major Fire at LA Apartments Causes Roof Collapse

Baton Rouge firefighters battled a fire Saturday night at the Goodwood Place Apartments in the Mid City area that appeared to have done major damage, although there were no reported injuries.

It was a fire in a 12-unit residential building that caused a roof collapse, said Mark Miles, a spokesman for the Baton Rouge Fire Department.

Shortly after 10 p.m., Miles issued a statement saying, "Everyone was able to get out safely. One of the tenants informed me that his working smoke detector alerted he and his family of smoke in their apartment and he got them out of the apartment."

He said crews were still on the scene working on the fire, the cause for which is still being investigated. Police, fire and emergency medical services crews were all on the scene as firefighters pumped water trying to extinguish the fire.

Miles said from the scene at 8:05 p.m. that firefighters actively fighting the blaze had to adopt a defensive position to keep it from spreading to other buildings. The fire was reported shortly before 7 p.m., Miles said, and firefighters arrived within minutes to find flames shooting through the roof.

Smoke filled the air as dozens of people milled about outside near the apartment complex, at 246 Apartment Court, many of them people living nearby who had come out to the street to see what was going on.

Firefighters were battling flames shooting from the top of one of the buildings as smoke billowed out, filling the air.

Government Street traffic in the area was being diverted as emergency crews fought the blaze.

William Bradford, who lives in one of the two- story units in the apartment building that caught fire, said he was relaxing at home when he smelled something suspicious and ventured upstairs to discover flames in the upper level.

He said he and members of his family began running down halls, banging on doors and yelling at their neighbors to flee. He said a firefighter told him they believe the fire had spread along the roof.

Bradford said he was going to be talking to the Red Cross about finding short term, temporary housing.

The apartment building is a long building with two-story, town house type apartments with entrances on the ground floor. It was not immediately known late Saturday how many people were living in the 12 units and were displaced by the fire.

Shortly after 9 p.m., firefighters could be seen going door-to-door with flashlights as they continued to extinguish occasional flare-ups inside and outside the building. They were also ripping off gutters from the structure’s fire-damaged exterior.

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