FORT SMITH, Ark. — “It’s been a rough morning, but I thank God that we’re all okay,” said Mashonna Bennett, resident of the Southbrooke Apartment complex that caught fire early Thursday morning.
The Fort Smith Fire Department (FSFD) responded to a structure fire this morning that shutdown Highway 271 both ways.
Bennett said she woke up to get ready for work around 6:15 a.m. when she noticed a flickering light coming from the porch.
“I walked into my living room to go to the kitchen to make some coffee,” Bennett said. “I could see an orange flickering light, what I thought was just light coming from the porch, but when I opened up the door, I saw that there were flames on my porch and the corner of my porch was just engulfed in flames like five feet high.”
After running back into the house to warn her family, Bennett said everyone was able to get outside safely. Her husband returned to the unit to try and rescue the family pets, and that’s when the fire department arrived.
“My husband ran back in to try to get our dog, and then he got out and then we didn't get the dog,” Bennett said. “He got one of them and then the firemen, when they came, they got our other dog out.”
Fort Smith Battalion Chief Shawn Fuller says the first fire truck arrived on scene just three minutes after the initial call. Crews then began cutting through the second story roof and extinguishing flames from the attic.
Sabino Rios, who lives in the unit under the Bennetts', says he noticed the fire on top of the stairs after hearing the commotion.
“All we heard was ‘Fire!’” Rios said. “We opened the door and we just saw fire on top of the stairs, and we saw stuff dropping down. We immediately just got to grab stuff.”
According to Fuller, as of now, there are no reported injuries.
Initial investigations are still being conducted, but Fuller states that the fire appears to be accidental, and it is safe to say that it was not an electrical fire.
The average response time, according to Fuller, for the Fort Smith Fire Department is three minutes and nine seconds. The Fire Department has 11 stations scattered across the city.
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