SAN ANTONIO – A strange noise was what first captured Alex Carillo’s attention Friday morning, alerting him to the fact that something was wrong at his apartment complex in the Medical Center area.
Within seconds, Carillo said that suspicion was confirmed when he realized the building next to his, off Medical Drive near Wurzbach Road, was engulfed in flames.
“My wife went to the balcony to see what was going on, and she just saw all the fire right in front of her,” Carillo recalled.
He said he and his family, which includes a young son, ran to their car and drove away from the building.
As they backed out of their parking space, Carillo said his wife captured an even more unusual sight on her cell phone.
He shared a video of the dramatic scene showing one person dropping down from a window and a man waiting below to help with a soft landing.
The camera then quickly pans to the right, showing huge flames roaring out of the side of the building.
Within minutes, the San Antonio Fire Department arrived on the scene.
In the initial calls received just before 11 a.m., firefighters had reports that someone was still trapped inside the burning building.
Later, they determined that all the residents had been accounted for, according to Joseph Arrington, a public information officer for SAFD.
“We did have three very minor injuries, cuts, bruises, abrasions, and some minor burns,” Arrington said.
Of those three, he said two were taken to a hospital as a precaution.
Although fire investigators are still trying to determine the exact cause of the fire, Arrington said it appeared it started on a patio or balcony of an apartment on a lower floor.
The flames and smoke quickly spread throughout the entire building, threatening to jump to nearby structures.
“I had to get everyone that I cared about to safety,” said Chris Stapleton, who lives in the building next door and worried that his home might be next. “That was most important.”
Stapleton took a photo with his cell phone of what appeared to be a wall of flames just outside his door.
As James Fry and Bri Watkins, who live elsewhere in the apartment complex, watched from a distance, they also worried about their neighbors.
“We saw a woman just absolutely down in tears, crying on the phone, I think, with her money,” Watkins said.
In all, 12 units were either damaged or destroyed.
Arrington said firefighters were working with the managers of the apartment complex to find other units for the victims.
He said more than 100 firefighters were on scene at the height of the fire.
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