CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Half a dozen people were rescued off their apartment balconies Tuesday morning after a fire ripped through a large apartment building on Scaleybark Road near the intersection of Woodlawn Road.
The fire broke out at about 3 a.m. Tuesday at the Charlotte Woods Apartments. Firefighters evacuated all 66 units in the building.
By late Tuesday morning firefighters cleared much of the damaged property and decided the building is safe to walk through, so they allowed people back inside to collect what's left of their belongings. Many of them will not be able to live in their units for months.
Linda Whetstone lives in building 1118 where the fire started. She said she heard a firefighter shout down through a broken window in her apartment that her bathroom floor caved in.
She could only watch as firefighters tossed her belongings out of her broken window. From the look of her now charred walls, she knows many of her things, like her apartment, are destroyed after the four-alarm fire.
"I'm 67," she said. "I've been working since I was 16 and I have things in there that are irreplaceable."
But right now, she'll settle for the basics.
"My teeth were in the bathroom. Now I don't have teeth… I need some clothes to put on," she said, wearing pajama pants.
Just hours earlier she rushed out a smoke-filled hallway as flames ripped through the building's roof.
"I saw one person get pulled off the balcony and I saw them take another lady out the back on a stretcher," said Kahorya Todd, who lives in the building.
Firefighters had to rescue at least six people from their balconies because the hallways were filled with smoke.
Capt. Rob Brisley with the Charlotte Fire Department said, "A significant part of this building will not be able to be lived in."
Neighbors made a point to mention how kind and helpful all of the firefighters have been during the day.
With piles of baby cribs, curtains, and clothes lying on the grass out front of the building, Whetstone and her neighbors are trying to keep things in perspective.
"They're just things," she said. "I got me. I got the dog. I got my nephew out."
She finally got some relief as a firefighter brought out her computer safely. It is one less thing she has to worry about as she prepares for the long, uncertain days ahead.
CMPD Animal Control officers are helping owners house and care for their pets as the Red Cross works to help the people. Managers at the Charlotte Woods complex are working to relocate, at least temporarily, everyone affected by the fire.
The Red Cross is opening a temporary shelter to house the 60 families that were displaced. The shelter will open at 5 p.m. at E.E. Waddell High School, located at 7030 Nations Ford Road.
Investigators say the fire started on the ground floor because of "carelessly discarded smoking materials." The fire has been ruled accidental. It caused about $1 million in damages, according to the Charlotte Fire Department.
