Kokomo fire displaces senior citizens

Kokomo, Ind. (WISH) - A two-alarm fire forced the evacuations of 100 people living in a senior citizen's apartment building overnight. It happened in Kokomo at the Terrace Tower Apartments in the 600 block of South Bell Street. Six residents and  two fire fighters were taken to to the hospital.

Hours after Kokomo firefighters responded to a fire at Terrace Tower Apartments, maintenance workers were still cleaning up the damage left behind.

Investigators say the fire started on the 5th floor.

"The fire came in at 2:16 this morning," Capt. Chris Hall with the Kokomo Fire department said. "Apartment 502 was fully involved."

About 100 people live in the apartment building. Investigators say some residents had to be carried down the stairs.

"it was pretty tough getting down the stairwell. We have both the north and south stairwell and some of these residents had a tough time getting them down," explained Capt. Hall.

Although the fire was contained to one apartment investigators say smoke and water damaged 17 other units.

"We are just really proud of our Kokomo Police Department and Fire Department," Pat Terhune said.

Terhune lives on the 6th floor of the building. He said he was asleep when a knock on his door woke him up, "The fire department and the police department all came around and beat on the doors and woke everyone up.|

Herb Cutshall thought it was a false alarm, "I thought maybe somebody was playing around cause you know sometimes there are false alarms."

Six people, including two firefighters, had to be treated for smoke inhalation. Investigators say their next challenge is to find a cause.

"It's like a puzzle. like a scientific method where we just start digging through and piece by piece and shoveling it out going from there," Capt. Hall explained.

The Kokomo fire and police departments took the residents to Memorial Gymnasium at Kokomo High School until they could get back into their apartments.

The Red Cross is also helping some of the people displaced by the fire.