Fresno man saves children from upstairs apartment fire

A man was injured saving his children from a fire early Tuesday morning at a two-story apartment complex in southeast Fresno.

Fresno Fire Department spokesman Hector Vasquez said a burning candle was the cause of the 1:34 a.m. fire in a three-bedroom unit on the second floor of a 12-unit complex at 3245 N. Maple Ave.

Three adults and three children in the three-bedroom unit made it safely out of the complex, Vasquez said. But a man, woman and two toddlers in an adjacent two-bedroom apartment had to escape through an upstairs window.

The woman escaped first and the man handed the two children down to her, Vasquez said. The man was cut by window glass on his arms, hands, legs, feet and ankles, and was taken by ambulance to Community Regional Medical Center. The woman and the children, ages 1 and 2, were unharmed.

Heavy smoke and flames were visible from the fire when firefighters arrived at the apartment complex, and firefighters originally thought the fire had started in the attic. Fire investigators later determined a candle in the three-bedroom upstairs unit had ignited and the fire had quickly gone into the attic, Vasquez said.

Besides the two upstairs apartments that burned, a first-floor unit directly below the three-bedroom apartment had water damage, Vasquez said. Seventeen people were displaced by the fire and sought help with the American Red Cross, he said.

The complex had no working smoke alarms, Vasquez said, and the fire is a reminder of the importance of having working smoke detectors and fire escape plans in place, especially for two-story buildings.

This story was originally published April 12, 2016 at 12:34 PM with the headline "Fresno man saves children from upstairs apartment fire."