Child Alerts Family To Apartment Fire On Arthur Street
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Actions of a 7-year-old may have saved the lives of family and neighbors in a Warsaw apartment building Friday night. Warsaw Fire and Police Departments were called out to 423 E. Arthur St., Warsaw, at around 9 p.m. Friday, in regards to an apartment fire. The building is across the street from the Salvation Army. The fire allegedly started in the basement apartment, E, and had spread to the upper floors by about 10 p.m. According to apartment E resident Travis Holland, his kid woke him up and told him there was a fire in the bedroom. “It scared the hell out of me,” Holland stated, standing in the parking lot across the street, wrapped in a blanket. He said the fire started by the television in the little bedroom of the apartment. “You could see it before you went around the corner. It wasn’t too small,” Holland recalled. He said he then evacuated his family and went to all his neighbors’ apartments to alert them. His sister-in-law called 911. While his mother-in-law lives in the area, Holland said they don’t really have any other family here. He moved from North Carolina about five months ago. He said he works at Maple Leaf Farms. Residents were allowed to go into the Salvation Army to keep warm while firefighters battled the blaze. The apartment complex is owned by Chad and Annie Zartman, who said they’ve owned the building since 2010. Chad said everyone got out and the fire started in apartment E. A tenant called the Zartmans to alert them of the fire. “I was hoping for something small, like a space heater or something, but it didn’t turn out lucky,” Chad said. There are five apartments in the building, he said. According to his best guess, Chad said it was built around 1888. At 11:15 p.m. Friday, Warsaw Fire Department Chief Mike Brubaker stated firefighters were still in the middle of trying to extinguish the fire and he had nothing to report at that time. Firefighters had the blaze under control at 11:36 p.m., but were still at the scene after 1 a.m. today. Assisting Warsaw and Squad 70 were fire departments from Leesburg, Pierceton, Claypool and Winona Lake.
