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12/22/2024 03:27:51 pm

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Terror and Tragedy as Senior High-Rise Blaze Kills 5

California Fire

(Photo : Reuters) A firefighter stands on a ladder truck at the scene of a large fire that consumed an apartment building that was under construction in Los Angeles, California December 8, 2014. The blaze in downtown Los Angeles early on Monday shut down two major freeways, the Los Angeles Fire Department and California Highway Patrol said. The fire was extinguished, but firefighters were still on the scene monitoring hot spots. There were no reports of injuries or fatalities in the fire. REUTERS/Jonathan Alcorn (UNITED STATES - Tags: DISASTER BUSINESS CONSTRUCTION TRANSPORT)

An early morning three-alarm fire burned an 11-story building for seniors in San Antonio, Castle Hills, Texas, on Sunday, killing five people and injuring 11 more.

About 150 residents who were saved from the burnt Wedgwood Apartments were evacuated to the Churchill High School, while 100 more remained in the residential building where they waited at a makeshift shelter in the cafeteria while waiting for their relatives, said Laura Jesse, spokeswoman of the Bexar County Fire Marshall, reports Fox News. She added not all 216 residents haven't been accounted for yet.

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Those who didn't have elsewhere to go are being assisted by Entrada Management Services, the property management firm, to find temporary shelter.

San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said some residents went down the stairs to leave the burning building, others were carried and some had to evacuate using the firefighters' ladder through their balconies.

To contain the fire, 150 firefighters from San Antonio and six other fire departments responded to the blaze which started at 6 a.m.


Vivian Casanova, a resident, told San Antonio Express-News that many residents were overwhelmed by the blaze. They tried to go out of the burning building, but most of the exit doors were jammed, she said.

Jesse said the fire appears to have started on the building's third floor. Hood said that after inspecting the building, it is short of a miracle that deaths were only five residents.

Some medication were recovered, and Red Cross staff and volunteers assisted residents match with their drugs on Sunday afternoon.

The last time a fire this big hit San Antonio was the Our Lady of the Lake University fire in 2008, but no one was hurt then.

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