DeKalb apartment fire leaves nearly 4 dozen people without homes

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) – Around 6:30 Wednesday evening, the DeKalb Fire Department received a call about a fire at the Husky Ridge Apartments.

Witnesses reported that several bridges were on fire, forcing nearly four dozen people from their homes. Dawn Frazier lives in the building and said she was sleeping when her son heard crackling sounds. What they thought was just their car on fire turned out to be their entire building.

“The building must have been on fire for at least 30 minutes for the fire to spread that quickly,” Frazier said.

Emergency crews reported heavy gunfire from the rear and front of the building. The DeKalb Fire Department estimates units put water on the fire for 2 hours to bring it under control. Michael Thomas, fire chief for the DeKalb Fire Department, says he migrated to the attic, which made things more difficult.

“Our last unit left the scene around 1:30 this morning,” explains Thomas.

Three people at the site were injured in the fire and damage is estimated at approximately $850,000, primarily to the interior of the building.

“We had a lot of structural damage, we had to pull our interior crews out at one point due to the structural damage,” Thomas said.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Residents received one night in a hotel. On Thursday, many of these residents returned to collect all the belongings spared by the fire.

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