Two people are in the hospital after jumping from the third story of a Hartford building during a fire that ripped through a multi-family home on Albany Avenue (Route 44) Monday morning, displacing residents.
Arthur Belton was sleeping in his second floor unit when a fire started in his kitchen.
"My girlfriend woke me up. I was in the bed. She said there was fire in the kitchen. So I went in there," Belton said. "I seen a big blaze coming out between the sink and the refrigerator so I ran on downstairs."
The flames were so intense that two tenants jumped out windows onto the roof of a restaurant addition at the front of the home, sending them to the hospital with minor injuries.
About eight people live in units at the building and all made it out and are accounted for, according to resident Kimberly Byrd, 17, who was not home at the time of the fire. But firefighters have deemed the building too dangerous, taping off the front door, so the families have been displaced.
Byrd's 17-year-old daughter was was in the shower when she heard neighbors banging on her door and she ran outside.
"this is the second fire I've been in and I don't know," Byrd said. "Stuff happens. I'm just glad nobody got hurt. It's materialistic stuff. It's just a bad time of year."
Local
Route 44 was shut down in both directions between Sigourney and Woodland streets as crews fought the fire and investigated. Firefighters and police responded.
The cause of the fire is unknown, but firefighters are not deeming it suspicious.
The fire remains under investigation.
