By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
A fire ripped through an apartment building early Sunday morning, causing a woman to jump to safety out of her second story bedroom window.
The woman suffered injuries, but none were life threatening, according to Bowling Green Fire Lt. Shad Kitchen.
A total of four apartments at 1005 N. Grove St. sustained serious damage, with the worst being in the unit where the woman jumped from, where the fire originated. The cause of the blaze is unknown.
“It’s under investigation by the state fire marshal,” Kitchen said.
One of the residents displaced by the fire came back to his apartment Sunday afternoon to find it uninhabitable. The man, a geology graduate student from Indiana at Bowling Green State University, came home to his unit with holes knocked into the ceilings, and water and smoke damage.
His main concern, however, was his missing cat – an indoor tabby named Copper.
“My cat is not here,” he said, asking that his name not be published. As he was surveying his apartment, a neighbor from another building showed up to offer help.
“Someone has your cat,” said the neighbor, Ricardo Green, who saw someone post on Facebook that they had rescued Copper.
“That’s all I want,” the cat owner said. “That would mean the world to me. I can figure everything else out.”
Green, who lives in a neighboring apartment building, said he was awoken early Sunday by the noise of the fire.
“I heard snapping. I thought someone was shooting,” he said.
But when Green looked outside he could see the source of the noise.
“It was all engulfed,” he said. “I heard the glass break from all the windows” from the heat of the fire.
The fire division received the first call about the blaze at 2:57 a.m. Sunday. The first and second floors of the building were heavily damaged, Kitchen said.
“There was a lot of fire when we arrived,” he said.
The woman who jumped out of her burning apartment was transported to Wood County Hospital. Others in the building were evacuated and offered assistance by the American Red Cross.
The building is salvageable, Kitchen said.
Mutual aid at the fire scene was provided by Central Joint Fire Division and Middleton Township Fire Department, plus Mid County 120 ambulance and Middleton Township EMS.
“We didn’t know how many victims we would have,” Kitchen said.
Firefighters remained on the scene until 8:20 a.m.
