DETROIT (WWJ) -- Residents were evacuated, helping each other down stairs in heavy smoke, when a big fire broke out at apartment building in Detroit's New Center.
The Detroit Fire Department said the fire broke out Thursday morning on one of the upper floors of the Pallister Plaisance Apartments, located off Pallister and the Lodge Service Drive. Drivers on the Lodge Freeway reported seeing smoke coming from the windows of the building,
There are unconfirmed reports at this time that two children were taken to a hospital with injuries, but it's not yet clear how serious.
The building was evacuated, and warming buses were brought to the scene for displaced residents left waiting out in the cold.
Firefighters responded quickly to the scene, and the fire was mostly out by around 9 a.m.
Mark Williams, who lives in the building, was at work when the fire broke out. He's glad to hear his neighborhoods got out.
"One of the residents did show me a video, and like, once again, this was the first time I had, you know, seen flames coming out of the actual apartment of any part of the building...So, it was definitely bad," he told WWJ Newsradio 950's Taylor Dietz.
Williams said other residents were helping their neighbors escape, some of them elderly.
"The stairway was full of heavy smoke, and one of the residents just started coughing and couldn't, you know, manage on his own. And he just grabbed him and said, 'Here, let me help you, man. Come on, come on. Let's get out of here!'"
It's not clear when, or if, the residents will be allowed back into the building.
The cause of the fire is unknown, as the investigation gets underway.
