Staff
Times-Picayune
Copyright 2007 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company
A man was hospitalized Tuesday night for smoke inhalation after a fire heavily damaged his apartment in the community of Jefferson, leaving a family of five homeless.
Lester Lane, 45, who lives downstairs in a two-story apartment building at 2921 Burns St., said he walked outside and saw smoke coming out of the kitchen window of David Wren’s upstairs apartment.
Lane said he went upstairs and helped Wren, who did not want to leave, out of the apartment.
Wren said the fire started while he was cooking, according to Lane.
Lane said Wren was given oxygen at the scene and taken to a hospital. Wren was conscious.
Lane said firefighters, who quickly arrived and put out the fire, disconnected electrical and gas service, so he, his wife, Cynthia, their sons, Brandon, 20, and Marcus, 24, and daughter, Lacambry, 23, could not spend the night in their home. But he said the American Red Cross was on the scene, a block east of Causeway Boulevard, and several blocks south of the Earhart Expressway, and would provide shelter to them.
The fire was reported at 7:43 p.m., and was considered under control by 8:07 p.m., said George Rigamer, a spokesman for the East Bank Consolidated Fire Department.
He said the apartment where the fire began was heavily damaged, a second upstairs apartment had smoke damage, and one of the two downstairs apartments had water damage. He said all four apartments in the concrete block fourplex lost power.
Rigamer said the damage was estimated at $25,000 to $30,000.
“The fire was blowing out of the window and through the roof within four minutes of being reported, just as firefighters arrived,” Rigamer said.