CINCINNATI — Nine people were taken to the hospital after a condo complex fire in College Hill.
Cincinnati Fire Assistant Chief of Operations Steve Breitfelder said two of the seven who were injured were firefighters. He added they suffered minor burns and are expected to return to work this week. The other seven were civilians who suffered smoke inhalation. One of them also had a muscular injury.
Crews got the call around 1:10 a.m. Tuesday for a fire alarm activation at the Hammond North Condominiums on Hamilton Avenue. When they arrived, they saw heavy flames coming from a few units on the first floor.
Adrienne Moore-Cornwell lives on the second floor and said her apartment was heavily damaged.
“We have soot everywhere on my floors, I have puddle of water all on my floor, my whole bedroom is soaked," Moore-Cornwell said. "I have water leaking, my ceiling is burnt. I have bubbles coming out of my walls."
She has lived at this condo complex for over a year with her 15-year-old son. She said this is the second time she has been evacuated for a fire and is grateful she and her son made it out alive.
“I went down the stairs. I can feel the heat and the smoke and I said 'oh my god run, run, run down the stairs,'" she said.
Fire officials said this was a 3-alarm fire and additional crews were called to the scene to assist. According to a press release, more than 100 firefighters responded to the scene.
“The cause of the fire is still under investigation. It did spill out into the hallway. The integrity of the door was burned through when it came out into the hallway and that’s why we had such a large intense fire," Breitfelder said.
Firefighters were able to quickly get the fire under control. Fire officials said that everyone in the hospital is expected to be okay.
“The most important thing is the outstanding job the Cincinnati Fire Department did in containing that fire to the first floor and to the apartment of origin. Like I said it did spill out into the hallway and had potential to spread throughout that entire building but we were able to get to it and extinguish the fire," Breitfelder said.
Most people waited in their units while firefighters battled the flames, investigators said.
"Most of them were able to shelter in place on upper floors, that means they were on their balconies and (had) fresh air," CFD Assistant Chief Matthew Flagler said.
Investigators said three units were involved in the fire and that five or six units were damaged.
Hamilton Ave update: the fire is now out, and we are working to remove smoke from this very large bldg. We have transported 7 civilians to the hospital from the fire. 2 FF’s also received minor injuries. We will be on scene for some time yet. pic.twitter.com/pbKIuhQe2j
— Cincy Fire & EMS (@CincyFireEMS) February 21, 2023
According to Flagler, Metro buses were used to shelter those displaced by the fire.
"We do not have a firm number of displaced people yet because we're making a good assessment of the whole building," Flagler said.
The Cincinnati Fire Department estimated the damage to be $1 million.
Even though, most of Moore-Cornwell's home is destroyed. She made it out with the person she values the most, her son.
“Even though I was panicking early this morning, he was so calm and he was comforting me and he was saying you know mom it’s probably just you know some soot, some smoke, my Xbox is probably damaged, a couple of shoes but he was like its material right mom, and I was like you’re right, so he put everything into perspective," she said.
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