Apartment Complex Fire Injures 9, Displaces 168

Louis Kimeng came home from his job as a security guard at 2 a.m. Saturday morning. Less than seven hours later, his wife woke him to say she heard screaming and smelled smoke. Within minutes, fire had destroyed everything in their apartment.

The three-alarm blaze in a Greenbelt apartment complex injured nine people, including a firefighter, and displaced 168 residents -- including Kimeng's 5-month-old, Pierrelouis, and 55 other children.

"Basically, I don't have my clothes, my car keys, my passport, my green card," said Kimeng, a Cameroon citizen, motioning to his charred couch and chair. "Everything burned. Eviction is better, because you can take your stuff somewhere."

The blaze started in a three-story building in the 5900 block of Cherrywood Terrace shortly before 8:45 a.m. Heat and smoke forced many residents to their balconies.

Sandra Gajardo, 33, thought it was a false alarm but realized that it was not a drill once she heard her neighbors screaming. The hallway was filled with smoke when she opened the door, so she and her 11-year-old daughter, Ashley, crawled to the exit. As soon as they got outside, Gajardo said, they saw two women -- including one with a baby in her arms -- jump from a third-story balcony.

Berwyn Heights firefighters, the first to arrive on the scene, rescued six residents from the balconies using ladders.

Frances Humphrey, 72, was one of them. She lost everything in her second-floor apartment, including a treasured collection of Christmas decorations. But she was happy that her cat, Patches, got out safely.

It took 45 minutes -- with nearly 100 firefighters and rescuers on the scene -- to bring the blaze under control. The fire was not fully extinguished until about 90 minutes after crews arrived. Investigators said the fire probably started in a second-floor apartment, but they have not determined the cause. Damage is estimated at $750,000.

The two, three-story garden-style buildings are part of the Empirian Village apartment complex (formerly known as Spring Hill Lake).

About three dozen people who were displaced took shelter inside a recreation center about 100 yards from the site of the blaze as a downpour continued into the afternoon. Some residents whose apartments had minor damage are being housed for a few days in hotels. Others are being assigned new apartments in the complex.

Paramedics took nine people to the hospital, but none appeared to have life-threatening injuries. The most seriously hurt were a man and woman in their 20s. Both had serious respiratory burns, said Mark Brady, a spokesman for Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department.

One firefighter was being treated for burns on his ears, Brady said.

For Robin Powell, 46, and her two children -- ages 8 and 6 -- the fire wasn't the end of their troubles. The family's Toyota Highlander was stolen as they slept.

"We don't know where we're going or how we'll get there," she said.

Staff writer Emma Brown contributed to this report.