By Bob Ussery
Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
HARVEY, La. — A wind-whipped four-alarm fire Sunday destroyed an apartment building in Harvey, displacing 23 families but injuring no one.
The Red Cross was supplying help at the building at 2101 Manhattan Blvd., part of the St. Germaine apartment complex between Gretna and Lapalco boulevards.
The fire was reported about 3 p.m. Although Harvey firefighters, joined by those from four other departments, beat the blaze down, it kept flaring up until a crane arrived about 4:45 or 5 p.m. and demolished parts of the building, said eyewitness Gary Mire, manager of the nearby Cafe Ditali’s restaurant.
A Harvey firefighter confirmed that firefighters were using a crane. The blaze was declared under control at 6:06 p.m., but firefighters were still putting out hot spots after 8 p.m.
Firefighters did not know the cause of the blaze.
Sunday afternoon, at Cafe Ditali’s near Ninth Street across from the apartment complex, a waitress saw fire trucks and police cars on Manhattan turning into the grounds of the building where she, her parents and her younger brother lived.
“Then we saw the smoke, and she saw it was around her apartment,” delivery driver Robert Hamilton said.
Hamilton gave the waitress a ride to the complex, on the east side of Manhattan, where she confirmed her building was on fire. Her parents were home in their second-floor apartment, and got out safely, she later told Mire.
Mire said the waitress, whom he identified as Arielle, 20, told him the fire started in a third-floor apartment across a hallway. He said her family moved to the West Bank after losing their New Orleans home in Katrina. She returned to the restaurant to cash out, and it was evident she had been crying, Mire said.
“They had lost their home in Katrina, and three years later they’re going to lose their home to a fire,” he said.
Hamilton said the fire appeared to have started in one corner of the apartment building. It spread within minutes to the rest of the building, near the shopping center housing a Target store, producing smoke visible across the river.
Hamilton said there were many spectators, including some who stopped in a parking lot next door, and others who drove by slowly, turning their heads. One motorist was taking pictures with his cell phone.
At first, Hamilton said, he saw smoke, then flames began. “The flames were crazy... It was weird,” he said.
Fire departments from Terrytown, Gretna, Belle Chasse and Marrero assisted, a Harvey firefighter said.
Of the 24 apartments in Building J, 23 were rented, and Red Cross personnel were at the scene ready to supply food, clothing and shelter where needed, said Megan Harms of the Southeast Louisiana Chapter. She said the fire started at the top floor and spread quickly because of wind.
At 3 p.m., wind speed was 15 mph gusting to 27 mph at Belle Chasse, said meteorologist Shawn O’Neil at the National Weather Service in Slidell.
Copyright 2008 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company