PEORIA, Ill. – Peoria firefighter/paramedics were call to the 2500 block of W. Starr at 8:33 a.m. Monday for a possible house fire.
Battalion Chief Shawn Sollberger said smoke was seen coming from the attic.
“What we thought we had was a fire on the second floor of a two story, [but] it was a three unit apartment complex,” Sollberger said. “We stretched a handline to the second floor, searched the second floor and the attic, and could not find the fire.”
Once crews opened up the apartments on the lower level of the complex, the fire was located. The fire had extended up through the walls to the second floor and attic.
Sollberger said the residential structure was not set up to be a three unit apartment complex.
Due to the complexity of the layout of the building, crews had the fire under control within 25 minutes.
Four adults and two children got out of the complex and were on scene at the time of the fire.
The cause remains under investigation.
