DeLand firefighters and Volusia County Fire Services rushed this morning to a fire in an occupied building at 140 W. Michigan Ave. near Downtown DeLand.
No one was injured, DeLand Fire Chief Todd Allen said, adding that the blaze was confined to the attic area.
The DeLand Fire Department got the call at 10:52 a.m., Allen said, and was on the scene at 10:55 a.m. The fire was out at 11:15 a.m.
Occupants of the second floor of the three-story building said they were alerted by sounds of banging in the apartment above them. Their upstairs neighbors shouted that there was a fire in the attic space behind their apartment, and asked to borrow the second-floor residents’ fire extinguisher, the resident said.
The 1925 house is divided into five apartments, with a sixth detached apartment also on the property, the residents said.
Residents of 140 W. Michigan Ave. and others watch as firefighters control a fire that apparently started in the attic of the apartment building. People were inside when the fire started, but all residents were able to escape the building unharmed, DeLand Fire Chief Todd Allen said.
“It was pretty intense for a little bit,” Chief Allen told The Beacon.
Fire-fighting equipment, ambulances and a Duke Energy truck lined the 100 block of West Michigan Avenue and wrapped around the corner at Florida Avenue, with emergency-medical personnel standing by in the event of injuries.
Allen said all the occupants of the building were outside when firefighters arrived, and there was heavy smoke pouring from the third floor and second-floor windows.
Firefighters had to chop a hole in the roof to access the blaze, he said, when the fire could not be reached from inside the building.
Denise Conner, who identified herself as the landlord of the structure, said she happened to be on the scene when the fire was discovered, showing an empty apartment to a prospective renter. Both she and Allen said there was no indication of what might have caused the fire.
At about 11:30 a.m., the DeLand Fire Department was waiting for the Orange City Fire Department’s fire marshal to arrive and begin an investigation of the fire. The Orange City fire marshal was the nearest one on duty, Allen said.
Residents of 140 W. Michigan Ave. and others watch as firefighters control a fire that apparently started in the attic of the apartment building. People were inside when the fire started, but all residents were able to escape the building unharmed, DeLand Fire Chief Todd Allen said.
