VERNON — Several people are out of their homes Monday morning following an early morning fire in a Vernon condo complex.
Police said emergency responders were called to The Townhouse Three Condominiums on Old Town Road around 1:45 a.m. An 8-unit building was impacted by the fire, police said.
The cold temperatures made battling the fire even more difficult, according to Vernon Assistant Fire Chief Robert Babcock. He said extreme cold froze some of the hand lines, but they still were able to knock out the fire fairly quickly. Mutual aid had to be called in from neighboring towns, including Ellington, Tolland, and South Windsor.
Several people were forced out of their homes by those flames, some holding young children doing what they could to stay warm. FOX61 spoke with one of those residents. Jackie Wright just moved to Vernon from Alabama and described the terrifying moments when she the fire woke her up.
“I just seen the people and the firemen kicking the door in going in and making sure everyone wasn’t in there,” she said. “I’m blessed that I still got my apartment I kind of feel sorry for the people who are going to come home and there’s nowhere to go.”
“I was in my bed asleep and I heard a big boom and I looked out the window and I seen the whole building just in flames,” Wright said.
No word yet on how the fire started, but officials say the fire is not suspicious. There was no sprinkler system in the building but there were working smoke detectors.
The Red Cross is assisting some of those people displaced by the fire.
This story will be updated as we learn more.
