Residents of NW OKC apartment complex left homeless by 3-alarm fire

Residents of an apartment complex in northwest Oklahoma City escaped a fire with just a minute’s notice and credited a quick-acting maintenance man with saving their lives.

Police closed the street in front of the complex near Council Road and Britton Road to traffic while the Oklahoma City Fire Department battled the three-alarm blaze. Residents watched as the fire destroyed everything they owned.

Flames and smoke quickly filled a building at the Retreat at Riverbend Apartments Friday afternoon. “It’s a little unusual for a fire to start at 11 a.m. and be so involved,” said Capt. John Chenoweth of the Oklahoma City Fire Department.

Some residents were sleeping when they heard a knock on their door. The caretaker walked through the building and asked everyone to leave.

“If he hadn’t knocked, I probably would have died before the fire started there because there was a lot of smoke,” said Johnathan Perry, a local resident.

They only had a few minutes to grab valuable possessions. “I have my grandfather’s picture, he died, so I have that,” said Kyle Winter, a local resident. “My birth certificate, my social security card, and my phone.”

All but one person were able to escape alone. “Our first arriving ladder company located the victim,” Chenoweth said. “As I said in the first story window, they were able to pull him out of that window. He suffered some cuts to his arm but was treated and released at the scene.”

Residents watched from the sidelines as firefighters battled heavy smoke and flames. “You could clearly feel the flames about 90 meters away,” said Winter. “It was so hot.”

Witnesses told firefighters that the flames appeared to have started on a first-floor patio balcony and quickly spread upward. “The roof actually collapsed, we also had a balcony collapse,” Chenoweth said.

Bob Mills Sky News 9 flew over the scene as firefighters extinguished the blaze. Residents with insurance hope they can replace everything they lost. “I lost everything,” Winter said. “I don’t even have shoes.”

According to the fire department, a total of 16 units were damaged and eight of them were completely destroyed. A car was also damaged by the fire.

Fire investigators are determining the cause of the fire. However, at this point they do not believe this was done intentionally.