22 residents displaced in Franklin apartment fire, chief says

FRANKLIN, Ohio (WXIX) - Nearly two dozen residents are displaced after a fire tore through a Franklin apartment building overnight, causing “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in damage, a fire official says.

Flames broke out around 9:30 p.m. Sunday at the Emerald Edge apartment complex on Boulder Drive.

No injuries were reported but the blaze heavily damaged the top three apartments and the rest have water and smoke damage, according to Franklin Fire Chief Daniel Stitzel.

Everyone who lives in the building, all 22 residents, cannot return to their apartments due to all this damage for the foreseeable future, he said.

That’s eight families including some with children, the chief noted.

The American Red Cross responded overnight to help with temporary housing, clothes and food vouchers, but fire officials and the complex’s operators are discovering that many have no renter’s insurance.

Charles Vaughn is among the residents forced out of their homes following the fire.

“[The fire] started, it smelled like someone was grilling outside,” Vaughn described. “I checked outside and no one was out there and I looked at my kitchen to make sure nothing was on fire. So, I chalked it up to someone grilling somewhere else. [I] laid down on the couch and 20 minutes later, I hear beating at the door and they’re saying the roof is on fire.”

Chief Stitzel noted there was “a severe lack of renter’s insurance” among the residents.

“All these people are not going to get any money for all the stuff that they lost. They are out. If you have a fire and have no insurance, that’s what you have. Nobody is going to give you a check to replace all your stuff.”

Renter’s insurance, he said, “is so cheap but people just don’t do it. Renter’s insurance is just so inexpensive (but) they don’t think this will ever happen to them. I’ve seen it so many times. I feel terrible for these people. All of their belongings are gone. Everything is destroyed. They have a car.”

The fire started on a second-story back balcony and spread to the attic.

No cause is determined yet, but the chief said this is considered an accidental fire.

So far they do not think it’s suspicious and he acknowledged careless smoking could be the culprit.

“We know it started on the back deck We are trying to figure out what happened. We are getting multiple stories. Even though they are not going to get into trouble, it’s accidental, people will lie because of the embarrassing factor,” he said.

The fire was spread in part by winds overnight, according to the chief.

“It worked into the attic. There was a breeze last night. It was wind-fed and it burned the roof off three apartments, the top three apartments. Those three apartments all had fairly significant fire damage.”

Fire crews thought they extinguished all the hot spots and cleared the scene only to get called back out by 3 a.m. due to what the chief said was “a small rekindle” in the attic.

“When we left, they didn’t see anything else burning obviously, but it just smoldered for a while and then came back up. They had to get a ladder to get back to where it was smoldering in the attic.”

Twenty firefighters in all responded, according to the chief.

In addition to the Franklin Fire Department, crews came from Middletown, Carlisle and Clearcreek Township.

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