Washington Area News in Brief

PUBLIC SAFETY

Smoky Fire Panics NW Residents

Burning debris in a hallway filled a Northwest Washington apartment building with smoke Thursday morning and panicked residents, prompting some to dangle their legs from windows as if to jump before firefighters evacuated them on ladders and extinguished the blaze, a fire department spokesman said.

The fire broke out shortly before 7 a.m. in a third-floor hallway of the five-story building in the 5600 block of 13th Street, and the upper floors were quickly enveloped in smoke, spokesman Pete Piringer said. When firefighters arrived, "there were probably 15 or 16 people leaning and hanging out of windows getting ready to jump," he said. "One family had already put some sheets together and were getting ready to climb down."

Piringer said more than a dozen residents were helped from the building with ladders. No one jumped or climbed down alone, he said. Two adults and two children suffering from smoke inhalation were taken to hospitals. One of them, a woman in her 20s whose preexisting medical condition was aggravated by the smoke, Piringer said, was in serious condition.

He said the blaze started when someone set fire debris that included an old mattress.

-- Paul Duggan

CRIME

Woman Sentenced in WASA Theft

A 39-year-old Fort Washington woman was sentenced Wednesday in the District's federal court to two years in prison for stealing more than $200,000 from the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority over a three-year period.

Sonia R. Coleman, a former payroll specialist at WASA, pleaded guilty May 4 to interstate transportation of stolen money. Prosecutors said Coleman manipulated WASA's payroll system to steal $236,256 starting in late 2004.