A fire broke out at Colonial Homes Apartments on Keller Street in Blackshear late Saturday evening, but the flames were quickly contained with no injuries.
According to the incident report, Douglas Hill was cooking in the kitchen. Realizing he needed some ingredients, he turned the burner down to a low simmer and left for the nearby store. Dylinda Taylor was home when the fire broke out, but not in the kitchen. Confronted by clouds of smoke and fearing the worst, she leapt from a second story window to the grass in front of the apartment, then ran back inside to get her kids to safety.
Asked if she knew what started the fire, Taylor said a leak from the upstairs shower must have dripped into a simmering pan of grease, making it splash onto the hot burner. Hill told firefighters much the same thing. The official report said, “once burning the fire rapidly extended to the cabinets above the stove.”
The first public safety officer on scene found all the building’s occupants outside. Inside Apartment 13, there was heavy interior smoke and a glow in the kitchen area, prompting them to close the front door in order to control ventilation while they awaited backup.
Fire engines arrived soon after, extinguishing the fire in the kitchen within minutes. Luckily, the response was swift and the fire confined to one area as a train heading east through Blackshear kept several responding vehicles stuck on the wrong side of the tracks.
One cat was located in the structure by firefighters and brought to the grateful owners. A second cat was thought to be in the apartment and fire personnel searched the structure, but the other cat was eventually located outside.
Firefighters checked the unit next door for smoke and, while there was an odor, no smoke was present.
Hill, Taylor, two children and three cats were displaced by the fire. According to the incident report Red Cross was contacted to provide assistance to the family. When asked where they would stay, Taylor said “with friends or relatives.”
