ITASCA COUNTY -- Fire struck an apartment complex south of Grand Rapids on Sunday, damaging 13 of the 16 units and putting 22 people out of their homes.
It happened about 4:30 in the afternoon as some in the Sugar Hills apartment complex slept. But one woman was able to alert her neighbors, very likely saving lives.
Jill Tromubly said she was getting ready for a Super Bowl party and smelled smoke.
"I was curling my hair," she said. "I thought it was just my curling iron. But it got worse."
Tromubly saw the smoke coming out of a light bulb socket. After realizing the smoke was filling up the hallway outside her front door, she took action.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I knocked on everybody's door. Everyone. Got them out."
Abby Hawkinson was taking a nap next door.
"I was woke up by people screaming in the hallways," Hawkinson said.
Hawkinson ran out with nothing but the clothes she was wearing. Everything else was lost.
Tromubly said she was unable to save her cat.
The landlord of the complex said the Fire Department told him the fire started in a third-floor kitchen. Allegedly, one of the renters forgot to turn off his stove burner when leaving for work.
Many of the residents won't be able to return. While they're being helped by the Northland Red Cross in the short term, local aid workers say permanent housing will be hard to find because of a shortage of low-income housing.
