Three people died after a fire broke out at a North Little Rock apartment building early Tuesday, firefighters said.
The blaze happened around 2:22 a.m. in building 8 of Shorter College Gardens Apartments at 800 N. Beech St., according to a news release from the North Little Rock Police Department.
The victims were all adults, North Little Rock Fire Department Capt. Dustin Free said. Their identities were not immediately released, as next of kin had not been notified yet.
He also said the department was waiting Tuesday afternoon for the administrative warrant it needs signed before an investigation into the cause of the fire can continue. He added that this is normal procedure.
“The tenant of the property is deceased, so there is no one to give us permission,” Free said.
The fire was not only deadly but devastating for several families it displaced, and he described conditions at the scene upon firefighters' arrival as extreme.
“This was an all hands on deck situation,” the captain said. “We work every day to save a life, but sometimes we are notified too late. The firefighters came in and tried to stop the fire aggressively.”
Free said the fire started in a first-floor apartment, but climbed into the walls and roof of the building, and it caused the second floor to collapse.
He said he did not think the three victims died due to the collapse.
Free also said apartment complex fires are more complicated than house fires.
“When we got there, there were reports of people inside. The fire was on the back of the complex, and firefighters had to decide how to lay the hose so they could reach it. It creates an extra obstacle,” Free said.
The fire was completely extinguished before 7:10 a.m., he said.
Although the fire was contained to a single unit, the damage has left several tenants without a home.
“I’m through, I don’t have nothing,” Audrey Marion, one of the people who lost their homes, said Tuesday afternoon.
Marion, a North Little Rock native, has three children under age five, and is expecting a fourth.
She said she was asleep in her apartment when she heard a loud “boom” around 2:40 a.m. She thought her child fell out of the bed, but “that wasn’t the case.”
She was alerted to the fire by her downstairs neighbor, who was outside and yelling for people to call the police about it.
“By then, I started smelling the smoke, I grabbed something to put on, I grabbed my baby, and I ran,” Marion said. “I didn’t have any keys, no phone, nothing, just outside. Once we looked up, it was smoke everywhere.”
Everyone in Marion’s home was able to escape safely.
“If nobody would’ve said nothing, we kind of probably would’ve been in there,” the mother said. Now, she’s trying to find a place to sleep and a way to feed her kids. “I need some funds,” Marion said.
According to Free, the mayor’s office, the North Little Rock school district and the Red Cross are working together to help displaced families who lived in the building.
Free said he could not fully assess the damage as of Tuesday afternoon.
“An engineer or a contractor will have to look and see if it can be repaired or just demolished and rebuilt, but we had to shut utilities off to the building,” he said.
Several families displaced by the fire have requested assistance from the Arkansas Red Cross, according to spokesman John Brimley.
“We were able to open about 12 cases to help families or individuals,” Brimley said. “We want to evaluate their needs on whether they need spiritual or mental help, sometimes financial.”
Free, the fire captain, said he heard from the North Little Rock School District Superintendent Gregory Pileswki, by text on Tuesday. The superintendent asked if any of his students were injured and sent people from the district to help.
“I reached out to Captain Free first thing this morning to learn about how many of our kids had been impacted,” Pileswki said.
The superintendent said the district had staff at the apartment complex all day, trying to help families get into temporary housing or shelters. He also said the district sent clothing over through its “unsheltered” program.
“It’s important for us to prove that not only do we show out for our students, but also for our North Little Rock community,” Pilewski said.
More help came in the form of volunteers that arrived on Tuesday as kids ran around the apartment complex, playing games with one another.
Many had juice bottles in their hands and were eating sandwiches.
“Would you like a sandwich?” Dion Simpson asked some of the kids who were there.
He and his friends grew up in the area, which is why he wanted to give back to the community when he heard about the fire through social media. He and a few others went there to hand out Chick-fil-A sandwiches, juice and snacks to the kids.
“We just feel like it would be good to give back to the community the best way we could because people lost their family members, kids, babies, and stuff like that, and having nowhere to live.” Simpson said.
He said the group is also preparing hotel rooms for the affected families and will try to get clothes and shoes for kids in the community.
“We’re just funding this out of our own pockets, with our own money,” Simpson said.
“Anything you can give to them – just help them out the best way you can. There’s not a certain number or certain amount. Just whatever you give to them, and it’d be appreciated,” he added.
Ryan Caldwell was in the area when he saw smoke at the complex, from across the street.
He hopes Shorter College Gardens can provide an apartment for those that lost their homes.
“I don’t know anything about any assistance they can give…I would hope they would allow them to stay in another apartment that is already empty,” Caldwell said.
Ohio-based Millennia Housing Management, which oversees the complex, did not immediately return a call from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.