SHREWSBURY, Mo. — Three people, including a 5-year-old girl, were rescued from a third-story window during an apartment fire in Shrewsbury.
The call came in just after 11 p.m. Monday night at the Rivercrest Apartments on Murdoch Avenue. Shrewsbury Fire Chief Chris Amenn told 5 On Your Side when crews arrived there was fire coming out of the window of one apartment. Crews knocked that down quickly.
Three people, including a child, had to be rescued from the third floor. Crews were able to extend a ladder to the window and pull the three people to safety. Amenn said they we not able to escape because of the smoke. He said no one was hurt.
"It was critical for us to get here right away and throw those ladders up and be able to rescue," said Amenn. "We had multiple things going on – people being rescued by ladder on one side of the building and companies going in on the other side of the building with hose lines to extinguish the fire."
One resident described the scene to 5 On Your Side.
"So we came outside and we realized there was 8-10 people are screaming for the other people up there and there was like three people – it was like a kid, like 6-8 years old – and there was a couple, like husband and wife, and they were asking for help – like if you guys can catch our baby. We cannot breathe, it's like suffocating," said Swagatam Saha.
Residents were not allowed back into the building overnight. Overall, 12 apartments were impacted. Amenn said there was "severe damage to the building". He said the cause was a cooking fire and credited the smoke detectors in the building for notifying the residents to evacuate.