By Sally Downey
The Philadelphia Inquirer
WARMINSTER, Pa. — An early-morning fire yesterday at Bucks Landing Apartments in Warminster sent 15 residents to hospitals with smoke inhalation and destroyed one second-floor apartment. The residents were treated at Abington Memorial and Doylestown Hospitals and released.
Firefighters who responded at 5 a.m. rescued two adults and three children by ladder from the second-floor apartment. Other firefighters helped several residents escape through a rear fire tower.
Warminster Fire Chief Mitch Shapiro said residents from all three floors of section C in the Street Road apartment complex were evacuated because of smoke and water damage.
The fire, which is under investigation, started in the second-floor hall, authorities said.
Four engine trucks, two ladder trucks, two rescue vehicles, and about 50 volunteers responded, Shapiro said. Assisting the Warminster Fire Department were fire companies from Hartsville, Warrington, Northampton, Southampton, Hatboro, and Horsham. The fire was extinguished in 20 minutes.
The Alliance Village Family Center was not damaged in the fire, according to the Bucks Landing maintenance office. The center is operated by the Latino Leadership Alliance of Bucks County and offers after-school programs, counseling services, and drug and alcohol abuse-prevention workshops.
Bucks Landing Apartments, formerly Centennial Village, houses more than 1,000 residents in 456 units in more than a dozen buildings on 18 acres.
Copyright 2009 Philadelphia Newspapers, LLC
All Rights Reserved