Four families are now homeless after a fire ignited inside their apartment building in Ocala on Saturday night.
Shortly before 7:50 p.m., Ocala Fire Rescue units consisting of Engines 3, 4, and 7, Rescue 4, Squad 7, Battalion Chief 11, and a Safety Officer were dispatched to The Morgan at Ocala located at 1421 SW 27th Avenue due to reports of a residential structure fire.
OFR units quickly arrived at the apartment complex, and crews observed smoke and flames from the front and rear of building 400. The crew members learned that there was possible entrapment in the adjoining second-floor unit, and assistance was requested from the following Marion County Fire Rescue units: Ladder 3, Medics 60 and 65, and Divisions 1 and 2.
Crew members from OFR Engine 4 entered through the second-floor unit’s front door and sprayed water on the flames within two minutes of their arrival on scene. Engine 3’s crews cleared a neighboring unit where two minor children were thought to be entrapped.
OFR Engine 1’s crews stretched additional hose lines toward the rear of the building, and they began attacking the flames from the exterior. Crew members from OFR Squad 7 completed a search of the apartment located beneath the fire unit while Engine 7’s crews secured a second water source to assist with combating the blaze.
Firefighters managed to extinguish the flames by 8:02 p.m., and MCFR’s Ladder 3 unit reported that the integrity of the building’s roof was not compromised by the fire. According to OFR, the cause of the fire is currently unknown.
Due to the fire, smoke and water damage, a total of four units (the fire unit, the two units underneath, and an adjacent unit) were deemed uninhabitable.
The fire has left four adults and 18 children without a home. Assistance from the American Red Cross was requested on behalf of those families.
The Ocala Police Department, Ocala Electric Utility, a Building Inspector, and a Chaplain also responded.