More than 100 firefighters swarmed the Willow Run Apartments Sunday night to battle a two-alarm fire and even rescue people through second-story windows.
San Antonio Fire Department crews responded to the apartments in the 7500 block of South Sea Lane a little after 7:30 p.m. SAFD Chief Charles Hood said there was already fire coming through the roof when they arrived, and units quickly called for a second alarm.
"This was a severe situation when we got here," he said. "We were in rescue mode from the very beginning."
There were no reported injuries or missing people, but Hood said firefighters had to do two ladder rescues from the second floor for people who were in their windows yelling for help.
Vanessa Trujillo, who lives farther down from where the fire was, described a frantic atmosphere as the fire spread.
"It was scary," Trujillo said. "People were running. They were knocking on doors, pounding on doors for people to come out. You could see the flames coming out from the front of the window, and the window was breaking and... it was horrible."
The fire extended the length of a building in the complex, Hood said, and, though he did not have a full accounting of the damage, he estimated there were about 10 heavily damaged units and several others with smoke or water damage.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
The electricity to the entire complex was shut down, the chief said on Sunday night, and people in the unaffected areas would be living without power for "quite a while."