Fire guts apartments on Buechel Bank Road

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Several people were taken to the hospital after fire ripped through an apartment complex in Buechel Wednesday afternoon.

The fire broke out around 1:30 p.m. at the Willowbrook Apartment complex on Buechel Bank Road and quickly spread. Five fire departments responded to the blaze.

The Chief with Buechel's Fire Protection District says the fire appears to have started in a bedroom of the first floor of one of the apartment buildings.

Four adults and an infant had to be rescued from the building; the baby and two adults were taken to the hospital and treated for smoke inhalation.

Getting the residents out, and even their pets, was a top priority. Victoria Belleza got her family out and was later reunited with her dog Peanut.

"All I can say is Thank You Lord. Thank you for sparing my dog," says Victoria Belleza.

He was given oxygen by firefighters while Victoria wondered about her two cats, still inside.

"I couldn't save them. All I could do was get me and my grandson out and. That's all I could save. It was so fast," says Victoria Belleza.

With no sprinklers inside the building, residents stepped in to help family and each other as the fire spread.

One resident told us he quickly climbed the balcony to alert his family.

"Hopped back up there to the balcony to tell my parents and they got down by a ladder," says Mirnes Iljazi, who lived in the building.

Tyrone Dunn says his children also tried to help.

"I'm glad my kids are smart enough to knock on doors and let everybody know to get out," says Tyrone Dunn.

Tyrone Smith says, a faulty electrical outlet in his daughter's first floor bedroom sparked the blaze.

"And then the fire spread to the bed, and the fire spread from there," says Mya Smith.

The fire left eight people homeless.

"If we had waited any longer, we probably wouldn't have gotten out," says Victoria Belleza.

Some tenants are questioning why a hydrant wasn't on the actual property, just in case this were to ever happen.

"There wasn't a fire hydrant. It would have been helpful if there were," says Jonathon Yuodis, Chief of the Buechel Fire Protection District.

Firefighters have not yet released an official cause for the fire.

The Fire Marshal says that because of the square footage, the building would pass the Kentucky Building Code without having sprinklers, however, fire officials say, a hydrant will probably need to be considered for the property when it is rebuilt.

We could not reach apartment officials for comment.