If you haven't heard, a 135 unit apartment building was set on fire early Tuesday morning, at approximately 12:45AM. The building burned so intensely that it was still burning into Wednesday morning.
Not all of the occupants have been accounted for yet and two deaths have been confirmed at this point. Firefighters are conducting a room by room search of the apartment building as they are able but it is slow going as the building is no longer stable.
At this point one person has been arrested in connection with the suspected arson and they are looking for additional accomplices.
I also want to publicly say "THANK YOU" to our firefighters, of which more than 100 were on scene for this 5 Alarm fire. Their response to this tragedy, including immediately calling for more engines as the first team rolled up to the scene, to focusing on rescuing people trapped inside rather than simply fighting the fire kept the injuries to a minimum and the deaths very low (altho we still dont know the final body count as of this writing.) Firefighters and Paramedics are the true day to day heroes in any community, and I would say it is very fortunate for us that we don't have more opportunities to thank them!
The Gazette has compiled a slideshow of firefighters attempting to put out the blaze. I hate the human tragedy but I am impressed with the photography. An interesting contrast knowing this fire was so intense, yet the temperature is so cold that everything is covered in ice from the hoses.