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DALLAS - Police helped evacuate part of a burning apartment building in the Lake Highlands neighborhood of Dallas Friday morning.
The fire started around 2:30 a.m. at the Del Rey Village Apartments on Wickersham Road, near Walnut Hill Lane.
By the time firefighters arrived, large flames were pouring out of several windows of the building. Police officers had already started going door to door to evacuate residents.
The firefighters entered the building where they could to make sure no one was trapped inside. Thankfully, everyone got out safely.
One resident said she escaped the flames with her boyfriend and young son.
“I heard firecrackers and glass popping, all of that. And I looked out my balcony window and saw off the brick of other apartments that it was flames. Well, I had to turn to my left in order to see and my neighbor’s apartment was engulfed in flames and my apartment was full of smoke. I couldn’t see anything but I knew to run and get out of the apartment,” Devin Haynes said.
Haynes said she heard her neighbor’s smoke alarm going off around 12:30 a.m. but said she didn’t smell any smoke at that point and didn’t call the fire department. There was no one inside that neighbor’s apartment.
It took firefighters a couple of hours to knock down all the flames. They are still monitoring hot spots.
“We got to a point where we needed to dump as much water and get those flames down as much as possible sooner than later. There were reports you could see the flames from LBJ to miles up the highway,” said Jason Evans, a spokesman for Dallas Fire-Rescue.
A total of 16 apartments now either have smoke or water damage. The American Red Cross is now working with the apartment complex to help get the displaced residents into other apartments or motel rooms on a temporary basis.
The exact cause of the fire is still unknown.