GASTONIA, N.C. — Officials are trying to determine what caused an apartment building fire that displaced at least a dozen residents in Gastonia.
[ PHOTOS: Gastonia firefighters battle apartment fire ]
The Gastonia Fire Department was dispatched to the Patriot Apartments around 1:36 a.m. Sunday.
Firefighters arrived to find the back end of one particular side of the building engulfed in flames.
Many residents had already escaped the burning building thanks to a neighbor who alerted others by furiously knocking on their front door.
Kim Byrd lived in the top, left corner unit of the apartment building. She told Channel 9 she was sleeping when she heard loud banging on her front door.
“My next door neighbor, he said you need to get out there’s a fire,” Byrd said. “Then I looked towards my balcony and I could see the fire coming over to my side.”
Byrd said she grabbed her dog and ran downstairs. She stopped quick to alert the neighbor in the unit below hers.
“I knocked and he was already coming out,” Byrd said.
A neighbor recorded a video of the fire on his cell phone. The blaze was so intense it melted portions of the siding on the building next door.
“People just ran out of the building,” said Richard Hocking, who lives in the building next door. “No socks, that’s pretty scary and sad. They lost everything.”
Officials said everyone in the building was able to get out safely. More than a dozen firefighters were able to put out the fire within 30 minutes.
Investigators remained at the scene much of the day Sunday, walking in and around the building to find out what caused the massive fire.
Firefighters also helped residents salvage what they could.
Byrd was pleased firefighters were able to get her medication. However, all of her belongings, including mementos of her late mother, are now gone.
“I moved in about six months ago,” Byrd said. “I decorated my place really cute and it just reminded me of her (mother) and now I don’t have anything.”
The Red Cross is helping families who have nowhere to stay.
Officials wouldn’t comment on whether the fire appears to be suspicious in nature, adding the investigation in not yet complete.