The Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La. — A massive apartment complex fire that killed three people and forced more than 150 people from their homes started with a pot left on a kitchen stove, a fire department official said Tuesday.
The fire at the Mirage Villa apartments took firefighters more than five hours to bring under control and shuttered the entire complex, displacing 150 to 200 residents, officials said.
Flames spread so quickly that some residents described watching neighbors jump out of second- and third-floor windows to escape the blaze that began late Sunday night.
Robert Combs, a spokesman for the Baton Rouge Fire Department, said he didn’t expect charges to be filed.
“From our end, it’s normally considered an accidental fire, and we don’t push it any further,” he said.
A shelter was opened at a nearby high school after the fire for those residents who were displaced.