He awoke because he heard a firefighter knocking at his front door.
If you want to see what an uncontrolled fire in a 3-story and 4-story apartment building looks like, here is a video.
At around 8:15 a.m. on Monday, June 10th, a fire broke out at the senior very-low-income “Temple Court” apartments in Miami, Florida — a building with 61 studio and one-bedroom units.
Note: In looking at the photos, it would seem that the walls of this building are concrete. Either cast-in-place concrete, or concrete-filled block. As you can see, the 4-story walls are almost completely unaffected by the fire. In Arcata, in a building like Sorrel Place or Plaza Point where the main framing is entirely of wood, a blaze such as this one would likely result in the entire structure being consumed by the fire.
Some seniors were rescued from their balconies. At this time, it appears that every resident in this fire-ravaged building has been accounted for, and no one was injured from the fire.
It was pouring rain during parts of the firefighting effort. From the four or five sprays directed at the fire, a tremendous amount of water was being used. The water was pumped from the nearby Miami River.
The firefighters knocked on every door
From a WPLG Local Channel 10 newscaster:
“I did get a chance to speak to one gentleman who tells me he was actually sleeping at the time. Of all of this, and —
• He awoke not because he smelled the smoke,
• Not because he heard the commotion,
• But because he heard a firefighter knocking at his front door. That’s what prompted him to get up, get outside.
And that’s when he saw all of this. He didn’t want to speak with us on camera. Obviously, still very shaken by all of this.
But that, I guarantee, is how the majority of these residents woke up early this morning.”
An older building with a wood-framed attic
The Temple Court Apartments in Miami were an older building. In the images below, we can see how building walls are standing — perhaps they are concrete. The roof structure was likely wood, and it burned quickly and completely.
It would not be fair to compare a modern building built here in Arcata with the Temple Court Apartments. Today’s more safety-conscious and fire-conscious building codes will have new construction be far safer for the tenants. There is one way in which the Temple Court Apartments in Miami and the housing here in Arcata are dead-similar: The use of lots of small framework for the roofs. When a fire takes hold in a wood-framed building, it can become very difficult to extinguish.
As can be seen in the photos below, much of the actual fire occurred in the roof structure. While a modern building will have a sprinkler system and many fire-safety upgrades when compared with this Miami building, an attic space with rafters and other small-sized framework will burn quickly, even in a modern building.
Photo images
An early stage of the fire. The roof is intact. The firefighters have not yet set up their aerial ladder trucks to spray water on the blaze.
Images below are from the later stages of the fire. These were taken from the 26-minute video, seen below.
The roof is entirely gone. The building walls are standing — perhaps they are concrete. The roof structure was likely wood, and it burned quickly and completely.
From the 11-minute video
Videos
NBC Channel 6
Early stages of the fire. The first 35 seconds of this video are the most striking. This is a helicopter view of what appears to be the beginnings of the fire. The aerial ladder trucks have yet to be used, and the building’s roof is still intact. At this point, there is smoke pouring out of multiple locations on the roof — possibly the fire was located in the attic areas.
FirstCoast News.
Live footage from a helicopter. 26 minutes.
There is only noise on the audio track so turn off your speakers/headphones.
This video shows the firefighters working with 4 or possibly 5 aerial trucks in efforts to put out the flames. Vast amounts of water is being pumped from the nearby Miami River for these aerial pumpers.
WPLG Local Channel 10.
11 minutes. With comments from the newscaster. Includes the quote shown above, at about 8 minutes 53 seconds into the video. “He awoke not because he smelled the smoke, not because he heard the commotion, but because he heard a firefighter knocking at his front door. That’s what prompted him to get up, get outside.”
For an idea of the tremendous volume of water that’s involved here, go to about 4 minutes into the video to see an active flame being extinguished by pumped water from the aerial ladder above it.